The Ultimate Weapon
by Mr. Forder
Summary: Tragedy strikes the Rovers' camp after a routine mission goes awry and one member goes missing presumed dead with only their singed collar left to find. Contains scenes of violence and peril. Constructive criticism welcome and appreciated! *Ongoing*
1. Chapter 1Reporting for Duty

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 1-Reporting for Duty**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Road Rovers or any of its characters, developed by WB studios.**

"Rovers, it's time again, report for transdogmification immediately." The man in white known as the master says calmly as he stands on a platform above a large room with five separate chambers at the other end of the room. It doesn't take long for the space in the chambers to be filled out with a different dog in each. The chambers soon become filled with smoke and only the silhouettes of the dogs can be seen as they are transdogrified into their cano-sapien forms.

"This is as we say in Siberia; totally neato!" Exile the Siberian husky exclaims as he steps out of the smoky chamber his ice blue eyes looking down at his muscular form.

"Ja we know Exile you dhat every time!" Blitz the Doberman says in an impatient tone as his own muscular form steps out from the smoke.

"Don't be weird boy!" Exile replies frowning as he turns to face the Doberman.

"Ah it's good to be back!" Hunter says a Labrador mix and the team leader. It wasn't a joke; Hunter had always liked being a road rover and being in the company of his friends, indeed, he wouldn't have his life any other way.

"Blimey we're not back two minutes an' already Exile and Blister are going at it." Coleen observes running her fingers through her length of fur, checking for any knots.

Shag suddenly appears standing next to Hunter and makes a series of incomprehensible barks.

"It is good to be back, Shag!" Hunter agrees placing an arm around the large Sheepdog's broad shoulders.

"I'm afraid it's time to end this little reunification rovers, I need you to report to the briefing room immediately!" The master says firmly from his balcony.

All of the rovers immediately stand still and salute the master loyally. "Right away Master!" They all say at once, each as equally loyal to the master as the other. They all march down a corridor to the west of the room quickly and enter the large briefing room that is filled out with a single table and chairs set around it in a circular fashion facing an enormous monitor that takes up the far wall.

Also inside the room 'standing' by the doorway is a Rottweiler fully restrained in a straight jacket, a muzzle and strapped securely to a trolley. "Hey there Muzzle! Did ya miss us?" Hunter asks him, stroking his head as he walks past. Not having been transdogrified Muzzle merely replies with a few growls and excited hops, clearly glad to see everyone back.

Once everybody has taken their seat, they all look up at the large monitor opposite the table as they do a satellite image appears on the screen of a desert region accompanied by the Master's voice. "Listen up rovers; I believe Parvo has been up to his tricks again, I recently picked up these images of Parvo's convoy in the Nevada desert, far away from the city of Las Vegas." The satellite zooms in on the desert floor, to where a small group of vehicles have gathered in a canyon somewhere. "Although there appears to be nothing of interest there, I would feel safer if I sent you to investigate this problem and see what, if anything, Parvo is up to."

"We understand Master! To the hanger team!" Hunter orders, pointing down another corridor off of the briefing room. Nobody has to be asked twice; each of them stands up immediately and heads down the corridor toward the hanger. Once they have arrived Hunter tells everybody what vehicle they are to take. "Exile! Blitz! You two take the sky rover! Coleen! Shag! We'll take the street rover!"

"You betcha comrade!" Exile replies eagerly, immediately heading over to board the large jet aircraft. He was always eager to go out on a mission, but he especially loved piloting the many aircraft in the hanger and with his super vision, he was probably the best for this little recon mission from the air. In fact, he was sure that was exactly why Hunter had ordered him to take the sky rover.

"Dha! How comes I always have to go with Exile, why can't I go with Coleen instead?" Blitz complained waving his arms in the air as he stepped into the aircraft.

"Ah! Don't worry Fluffy! I'm sure you'll get your chance one day!" Coleen teased after the Doberman. She had been in the submarine with him before, but of course that time she had, in fact turned into a werewolf.

"How many times do I have to tell you; it's Blitz!" The Doberman snapped stamping his foot on the floor of the sky rover as the ramp was shut closed with the phrase; 'Don't be weird boy!' coming from the cockpit.

As Coleen steps into the passenger seat in the front of the street rover, Hunter pushes cowering Shag into the back. "Don't worry Shag, we'll be fine, we always are!" Hunter tells Shag, trying to comfort him. "Besides, you've got the best driver in the world behind the wheel!"

_I still hope the airbags work all the same! _Coleen thinks, keeping the thought to herself this time.

"Let's hit the road, rovers!" Hunter calls over the radio to Exile and Blitz in the sky rover, as he turns the key in the ignition before putting his foot down speeding the street rover out of the hanger via an underground ramp.

"Nevada desert, here we are coming!" Exile exclaims, once again spectacularly managing to destroy a normally simple phrase. He flicks the necessary switches to get the engines running and pushes the throttle to full power, raising the sky rover from the hanger floor toward an opening in the ceiling.

"Alright, let me commence in the biting of the tooshies!" Blitz says rubbing his hands together.

"Don't be weird boy!" Exile says once again before the sky rover exits the hanger.

**This is the first chapter in my first road rovers fanfic or any fanfic, I will be writing more chapters in the future until the story is complete, until then reviews will be very much appreciated. So how did I do for my first story?**


	2. Chapter 2Ambush!

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 2-Ambushed!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own road rovers or any of its characters.**

The sun is high above the scorched, parched ground of the Nevada desert further adding to the image that this was nothing more than a barren wasteland, a place where no life could be supported for long. Indeed, it would be hard to believe that there was a huge city inhabited by millions of people on the edge of the monotonous scenery of the desert. A rare occurrence was to transpire this day though, as activity is seen in the middle of the desert wasteland.

"Looks as though Exile's having some darned good fun up there, like usual." Coleen points out from the passenger seat of the street rover, placing her hand in front of her eyes as she tries to block out the glare of the sun reflecting from the armour of the sky rover above them.

"Yeah, I just hope he doesn't scuff the finish." Hunter replies in a half-concerned, half-joking manner as he squints up at the jet while it corkscrews and loops above them.

"Oh leave the bloke alone 'Unter. When has he ever crashed that thing?" Coleen again points out, while in the backseat Shag makes a series of low whimpers and groans. "Yeah, but that was our first ever mission Shag and besides that old scoundrel Parvo did attack us."

"Since when could you understand him?" Hunter asks in a somewhat surprised tone. Usually, he was the only one that could understand Shag's…unique way of speaking.

"Not to be funny or anything 'Unter, but we have been together a good couple o' years now, you begin to learn after a while." Coleen explains in a manner similar to that of explaining to a two-year old that 2+24.

Before Hunter can reply though, a mildly static message emanates from the radio. "Dha, Hunter pleeze make him stop. He's out of control und I'm about to lose my lunch!" Blitz pleads into the radio microphone.

"I love being road rover!" Exile exclaims from the pilot seat in the cockpit, spinning the wheel and letting go to send the jet spinning wildly in a series of corkscrew loops. "Look, I am flying without my hands!" It wasn't hard to tell that he was excited to be back behind the controls of an aircraft.

Blitz in the co-pilot seat next to him on the other hand, was clinging onto the radio microphone for dear life, petrified cries and sobs escaping his mouth. "Don't be weird boy!" Exile retorts frowning while Blitz makes his plea to Hunter.

"Alright come on Exile, slow down a bit before Blitz has a conniption fit." Hunter orders from the street rover radio while trying to hold back a laugh.

"You're the bosski comrade." Exile replies picking up his own radio microphone and stopping the rapidly spinning wheel of the jet with his left hand. Immediately the sky rover stops turning, the force sending the radio from Blitz hand into his face, knocking him into a daze.

"Oh and Exile was enjoying himself so much." Coleen says shaking her head and tutting, clearly unconcerned for Blitz's discomfort.

"Alright that's enough Coleen we have a job to do, according to intelligence, Parvo's forces aren't far from here." Hunter says to Coleen before talking over the radio to Exile. "Exile, I need you to go ahead in the sky rover and take a look, let us know what's happening in the canyon. We'll wait here for ya' and decide what to do once you've reported back."

"Understood comrade, be seeing you before it is the time of lunch!" Exile replies into his own radio before he puts it back onto its holder. He then pushes a couple of buttons under the throttle handle to give the engines a boost. Just as Blitz starts shaking his head to awaken himself from the stunned daze he had been forced into, he is forced back into his chair with his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as Exile forces the sky rover forward.

"Gee 'Unter, are you sure that it's a good idea to send 'em off alone? What if they run into trouble?" Coleen asks Hunter as he slows the street rover down to a stop. In the backseat, Shag seems to whimper in agreement.

"Relax you guys, Exile's a crack pilot and with that super vision of his he'll easily be able to spot anything dangerous. The only way something can go wrong is if they knew we were coming." Hunter replies, lying back in his seat with his hand out of the window and switching the air condition on. "And besides, we're only a few minutes away if they do need our help."

"Well I guess your right 'Unter, still ya' can't help, but worry." Coleen sighs, folding her arms and sitting back in her seat.

Back in the sky rover Exile scans the horizon for any sign of the canyon where Parvo's forces were supposed to be, using his supervision to his advantage, leaving no stone unturned.

"Dha, Exile! Why can't you warn me when you are going to fly like a crazy man?" Blitz asks irritably, rubbing his head where a small lump was forming.

"Freeze out weird boy! I am only having a bit of fun. Besides, with my super eyes, nothing can go wrong!" Exile states confidently, grinning cheekily at the Doberman.

"Ja, but still; that really hur-!" Blitz begins before Exile suddenly cuts him off.

"Please be shutting your trap! I can see something!" Exile exclaims, squinting at something in the distance. As they fly closer, Exile can clearly see that it is a canyon, most likely the one where Parvo's forces were supposed to be. "I think I found the canyon! Let me be getting a closer lookski." He adds, pulling back on the wheel to take the sky rover higher so as to get a better look inside the canyon.

"That is very strange." Exile says as they make it to a distance where he can see the canyon floor. "There is nothing down there, nothing at all, just rocks and dirt!"

"Ack! What do you mean you can't see anything? This is dha right canyon, right?" Blitz asks annoyed with Exile for telling him to shut up. "Don't tell me you forgot how to use your super vision! Let's just go in for a closer look."

"Me? Forget how to use my super eyes? You are being stupid! I am pro boy at this!" Exile retorted. With his Russian pride, he was insulted by the thought that he wasn't capable. "Fine, we'll go in for a closer lookski."

Exile pushes the wheel downward now to lower the sky rover closer to the canyon, as they get closer though, he still can't see anything out of the ordinary and so he pulls the throttle down a little to slow the jet down for a quick flyby over the canyon.

"See? I told you there is nothing there!" Exile says a little loudly, confused that there was nothing there and still annoyed with Blitz implying that he was useless.

"Dhat's impossible! This was definitely the canyon; there are no others around!" Blitz replies frustrated that it appeared as though the images had been wrong. Suddenly, an alarm rings and a red light begins to flash and whir around the cockpit. "Ack, du leber! What is it now?"

"That's impossible!" Exile exclaims with a confused look on his face, suddenly anxious. "It's saying that we have got somebody locking onto us!"

"What do you mean someone is locking onto us? You mean with a missile?" Blitz asks searching around the canyon. "There is nobody here, but-" Blitz begins, but is suddenly once again cut off by Exile talking and suddenly throwing the throttle to top speed.

"There is definitely something following us! Look at radar!" Exile shouts above the alarm, holding his hands firmly on the wheel. The radar in between the two clearly showed something following them fast, getting closer by the second. "Hold on weird boy, this not being easy."

Before Blitz can say another word, Exile pulls back hard on the wheel to send the sky rover straight upwards in a vertical line, the missile narrowly missing the tail of the jet. Steadily the jet struggles upwards, but eventually the engines begin to stall, unable to produce the lift required to keep the jet in the air.

"Ahhhh! Exile what have you done? You are going to kill us!" Blitz screams, cowering in his seat and starting to suck his thumb.

"Don't be weird boy!" Exile shouts, pulling the wheel toward him while turning it right to make it face the earth again, to try and get the engines working again and to avoid the missile as it loops back to get at them again. Unfortunately as Exile pulls the sky rover back, the sun shines directly into his eyes, blinding him and forcing him to throw his right arm up to guard his face. He feels his insides move as the G-force hits him, telling him that they are now plummeting back towards the earth.

Exile keeps his left hand firmly on the wheel, while he uses his right to rub his painfully sore eyes, unable to see anything but a haze of bright green dots. He growls loudly from the pain and feels a sickening lurch in his stomach as he feels the sky rover shudder violently, accompanied by a loud noise that can only be from an explosion; they had been hit.

He fumbles around the cockpit controls with his right hand trying to look for the radio, keeping his left firmly on the wheel, trying to squint hard through his sore, watering eyes, but it was near useless, he couldn't see anything except those darned green spots.

Finally, he feels his fingers close around the radio microphone, bringing it to his mouth he yells; "April day! April day!" Into the microphone.

Unlike Exile, Blitz had had his eyes shut tight when they had faced the sun and could now see everything that was going on around them. They were falling toward the earth nose first in a spiralling dive after the missile had hit them and it now seemed the situation was beyond Exile's control. In between sobs for his mummy, he had been shouting for Exile to pull up or do something to save them, but for some reason he seemed to have his eyes closed and didn't seem to be able to open them.

"Ack! Du leber! How many times do I have to tell you? It's May day!" Blitz soon shouted frustrated and scared now that Exile seemed to have lost control.

"Grab your wheel and pull up hard, you stupid weird boy!" Exile shouted back, positively fuming now, he couldn't see, his eyes were in great pain, Blitz didn't have the sense to try and help or else was too scared to and on top of that, he had just dropped the radio. Now, he held both hands firmly on the wheel again and pulled as hard as he could, hoping that it would help them pull out of the death spiral.

Blitz shook his head hard to try and bring himself to his senses a little more before he finally grabbed his own wheel and started to pull on it hard. "Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy!" He kept muttering under his breath as the ground drew closer. They had started to make a small impact on the dive with their efforts, though even Blitz could tell it wouldn't be enough to avoid the inevitable crash, they were going too fast and the sky rover was too badly damaged, but maybe, just maybe they could do enough to get out of this alive.

Slowly, but steadily the nose of the sky rover began to move upward, but with the spiral so violent, it would be a matter of luck and good timing that they managed to crash the right way.

Hunter and Coleen are comfortably sitting back an relaxing, while Shag sits in the back seat pulling various food items from his fur and chomping them down without much effort. It's been a few minutes since they lost sight of Exile and Blitz in the sky rover, but they weren't too concerned, maybe they were just having trouble finding the canyon in the sun.

Suddenly though, the calming quiet in the street rover is interrupted with an emergency message on the radio, clearly from a panicked Exile. "April day! April day!" Is all they can hear before the message is interrupted by some ominous sounds blaring out in the background, including some incomprehensible words from a clearly terrified Blitz, replied to by some angered shouting by Exile.

Immediately, Hunter reaches out and picks up the radio with Coleen and Shag leading forwards to listen. "Exile? What's happening? Is something wrong? Exile! Blitz! Are you alright! Answer me!" Hunter calls down the radio in a highly concerned voice. After a couple of seconds of continued ominous sounds, the transmission is ended with the sound of Blitz and Exile shouting together and a loud burst of static before the line goes dead.

A deafening silence falls upon the three in the street rover; Hunter's hand is trembling violently, clutched tight around the radio microphone. "Exile…Blitz…" Hunter whispers weakly into the microphone. Nothing, just pure silence is the response that he gets. After a brief glance at Coleen in which their eyes meet, Hunter slams the radio back into it's holder, turns the keys in the ignition to start the engine and puts his foot down on the accelerator to get the street rover speeding toward the direction of the canyon.


	3. Chapter 3 A Comrade is Lost

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 3-A Comrade is Lost**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Road Rovers or any of its characters.**

His head was pounding; the entire upper half of his body was aching as if he had just been hit by a train. He was lying on something soft and warm, he didn't know what it was or even where he was, he felt like he didn't have the strength to open his eyes. He could hear though, hear voices, familiar voices, talking in hushed voices that seemed to echo inside his mind.

"How is he?" One voice asks, a male voice, one with great concern and a certain heaviness to it.

"'e'll be fine, nothing but a few cuts and bruises, lucky when you consider the state of the sky rover. That must have been one 'eck of a crash!" A female voice replies in a much calmer tone, as if she was forcing herself to keep it level. "'e took a nasty bump to the 'ead, dunno how long 'e'll be out for."

"Well, at least we know _he's_ alive." The male voice said again with a certain amount of relief to it this time. "The master needs all of us in the briefing room, he needs to discuss-well, you know what with us…" The voice trails off unnaturally, as if the person it belongs to can't bring himself to say it.

Blitz manages to open his eyes enough to squint through his eyelids; he can see a hazy light above him on the ceiling and can just barely make out the silhouettes of Hunter and Coleen standing either side of him. He can't keep them open long though and soon let's his eyelids drop shut again, the effort of keeping them open for a few seconds enough to force him back to sleep.

Slowly, Blitz opens his eyes; his body still aches a bit, but no where near as much as it had since the last time he regained consciousness. His head still hurt, but he no longer felt like someone was pounding it with a pneumatic drill, he felt somewhat heavy, as though he overslept more than just a couple of hours.

His vision eventually slipped into focus allowing him to see clearly enough that he realised he was in a bed in the medical room of the road rovers facility. He turned his head to the right so that the light above him was no longer shining directly into his eyes, as he did so, he noticed Hunter sitting on a chair at his bedside, reading a nature magazine about different types of trees around the world.

"And you tell me I need a hobby." Blitz says with a yawn having given himself a couple of minutes to adjust himself to his surroundings.

Hunter was so startled by the sudden movement of Blitz that he threw the magazine across the room where it landed in the toilet. "Ah man I was just getting to the good part and-wait-Blitz! You're awake!" He says loudly, wrapping his arms tight around Blitz's waist.

"Ack! Hunter! Get off! You are choking me!" Blitz chokes, taking a deep breath as Hunter releases him. That was the last thing he needed, well, no the last thing he needed was a monster bear hug from Exile. Where was Exile anyway? He thought as he glanced around the room, seeing all of the beds empty.

"Sorry Blitz buddy! It's just that you've been out for three days now, nobody knew when you were going to wake up." Hunter apologised, glad to see that Blitz was well. After all that was a nasty bump he had, his head was wrapped in a thick layer of white bandages.

_Three days!?_ Blitz thought, looking down at his body to see several bandages on his chest and arms. _It must've been a nasty crash…_ He couldn't fully remember what had happened, he could remember the death spiral in the sky rover and how he and Exile had, with all their efforts, just managed to control the dive enough to strike the ground upside down with the rear of the jet. It wasn't an ideal landing that enough was true, but they had at least managed to reduce the impact of the crash. He couldn't remember much after the impact though, he vaguely remembered hanging limply from his seat with the seatbelt stopping him from falling from his chair onto the ceiling, but beyond that he had blacked out.

"Hey Hunter, where is Exile?" Blitz finally asked. He knew that if it hadn't been for Exile bringing him to his senses, he probably wouldn't have pulled at the control wheel in time enough to help Exile pull them out of the dive.

"Well, er-." Hunter groans with a suddenly grave look on his face. Blitz wasn't the best at reading body language, but Hunter's was obvious enough; he was trying to think how to explain some bad news.

Suddenly, a horrifying thought crossed his mind. But it couldn't be…could it? "Hunter. Exile, is he de-I mean, did he survive the crash…!?" Blitz asked, gulping as he did, bracing himself for the worst.

"Well, no he isn't-I mean we're not sure if he-we don't know if he's alive or even where he is…" Hunter replied in a manner that suggested that he was hurting bad inside-and it wasn't because of a dodgy taco.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Blitz shouted, angered by Hunter's apparent inability to answer a simple question. Some leader he was. "Did Exile survive the crash or didn't he!?" He was desperate for an answer now, the wait for an answer practically driving him mad. For all the apparent issues their relationship had; Exile might as well have been Blitz's best friend.

"I already said Blitz; I don't know. Nobody does. After we arrived at the crash, Exile was nowhere to be seen, you were the only one in the sky rover, we tried looking around the canyon, but we couldn't find any trace of him." Hunter replied quickly, wanting to explain before Blitz could argue anymore. He sighed before he continued explaining. "We brought you back to base and after Coleen fixed you up, the Master ordered us to the briefing room to talk about it. There was nothing on the satellite to say where he had gone either. He's virtually disappeared from the face of the earth buddy…" He trailed off to let the information sink in. This probably wasn't the best news to wake up to.

"Exile…is gone…" Blitz repeated to himself, placing his head into his hands. How could anyone just disappear? He thought. Exile had to be somewhere, but from what Hunter had just said, there wasn't anyway to find out where he was. No trail to follow, nothing, just an empty gap where Exile had once belonged.

"We're going to try anything we can to find him, we won't give up until we find either him or-or his body." Hunter said in a hushed tone, his voice breaking. Even the thought sent a horrible chill down his spine, to think that one their team was gone, apparently disappeared into thin air was an excruciating thought to bear. Even more unbearable was that he was the one that had ordered them on ahead. "I suggest you concentrate on getting better buddy. Coleen says you should be fine to return to missions and to the German chancellor in a couple of days as long as you take some time to rest."

"Ja, I guess dhar is nothing more we can do…" Blitz replied in an equally hushed tone, lying back onto his pillow and staring up at the bright sealing. After all, what more could he do? He wouldn't be able to do anything to help until he was better anyway and besides, he needed a bit of time to think about this.

Hunter decided to remain at Blitz's bed side for the time being and wait for someone else to come in, he felt compelled as the team leader and as a friend to Blitz, to at least be there if he needed to talk. Although they all knew how much time Blitz and Exile spent annoying each other, everyone also knew just how much time Exile and Blitz had spent together on missions, forced into the same vehicle with each other half the time and although that was the case, it would still be a big gap for Blitz-and everyone to get used to.

**Well, here's the third chapter, I decided after a bit of trial and error to change the writing style of the story. Make sure to let me know what you all think! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4 Acceptance

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 4-Acceptance **

**Disclaimer: I do not own road rovers or any of its characters.**

Hunter lay awake in his bed, resting his head in his arms, staring up at the dark ceiling of his bedroom. It had been a full week since Exile and Blitz had been ambushed in the canyon, but who they suspected to be Parvo's troops and Blitz was steadily on his way to making a full recovery, though he was still required to keep his head wrapped up until it had healed a little more, at least he was allowed out of the medical room now. There had still been no trace of Exile though and nobody was feeling any better because of it. One among them was lost, possibly dead and there was nothing that could help to heal the rift that had formed. It was not knowing what had happened to him that Hunter couldn't bear, and he was sure it was the same for everyone else. He was also sure, that if they could just find some hard confirmation of what had happened to Exile, whether it was to be discovered that he was dead, (the very thought sent an unnatural chill down his spine) or alive, then the very certainty at least, would allow them to cope a little better.

Hunter had thought a lot about the attack since it had happened and his thoughts were about to go over that very mystery again tonight, before he could though, he was interrupted by a message on his dog tag radio. Sitting up, he tapped the gold marker to allow the message to get through. _Why would someone call at this hour? _He pondered. It must've been way past midnight and way into the early hours of the morning.

"Huntie, it's me." Coleen's voice answered from the tag. "The master wants you to come to the briefing room, it's about Exile. I'll explain everything when you get 'ere." At this point the transmission stopped in a small burst of static.

Hunter wasn't about to waste anytime in gathering himself together, not even stopping to wonder why the master was requesting his presence this late, if it was anything to do with finding Exile, he wanted to know about it as soon as possible. It was just as well that he hadn't even removed his road rovers armour yet, in fact, it had been two days since he had last cared to remove it, thinking too much about his missing team mate. He near enough sprinted to the briefing room and was there within the space of about two minutes. When he arrived, he discovered Coleen and Professor Hubert sitting around the table, with the master projecting his image on the large screen on the wall opposite the table. He sat himself on the chair four spaces the right of Coleen, so that he was sitting in between the two with some space between each of them, quickly throwing Coleen a quizzical look before turning to look at the master's large image.

Before he could speak or ask a question though, the master begins to speak. "Hunter, I've called you here because it's time to come to a decision about Exile." The master said in a commanding yet, somehow sympathetic tone. "I asked Coleen and Professor Hubert to return to the canyon one last time to look for any trace of Exile, or anything that might suggest what happened to him."

He stops talking at that point, while Professor Hubert pulled something red and black out of his lab coat pocket, sliding it into the middle of the table where everyone can see it. It didn't take long for Hunter to realise that it was Exile's road rovers collar. The material was heavily singed for the most part with the gold tag heavily blemished and apparently partly melted.

"We found it at the front of the wreckage." Professor Hubert said, his hands cupped together on the table. He sighed heavily before he spoke again and for some reason decided at that moment to clean his glasses on his lab coat. It looked to Hunter as an excuse not look at him while he spoke. "There was also a heavy stench of singed fur in and around the wreckage."

Hunter's heart had sunk when he saw the collar, he had hoped they might be able to locate Exile with his tracking signal, but that unfortunately was located on the collar itself, the one that now lay before him. It seemed there would be no way of locating him now. "So what do we do now?" Hunter asked almost instinctively, looking around the table from Coleen, to Professor Hubert and finally to the master. "Is there any other way we can find Exile?"

"Huntie…" Coleen said, apparently struggling to speak as Hunter turned his gaze upon her. "Don't you realise what this could mean? We found the collar inside the wreckage, near where the flames had been most intense. Professor Hubert also said that was where the smell was most strong, even I could smell it!"

"What are you saying Coleen?" Hunter asked, breathing heavily and a sickening feeling rising in his stomach. He knew exactly what she was implying, but had to hear it himself to be sure.

"Hunter, I know this may be difficult to bear, but it might be an explanation as to why there isn't any trace of Exile." Professor Hubert said again, this time looking directly at Hunter. "It appeared to me at the scene that Exile had taken off his seatbelt, probably to try and grab the radio easier; according to Blitz, he dropped it mid-transmission. Its more than likely that he was thrown back out of his seat at the point of impact, it's not impossible when you consider that the sky rover hit the ground at an angle from the rear. As for why there is no trace of him, well, we use rocket fuel to power the sky rover and it burns at extremely high temperatures and at a rapid rate. Therefore…it would be unlikely to leave any solid trace of anything burned by it…"

A heavy silence fell upon the room, leaving an atmosphere so thick with emotion someone could cut it with a knife. Hunter gulped, trying and failing to get rid of a sore lump that had formed in his throat. He wanted to argue, _wished _he could argue, but he couldn't, he knew he couldn't. Out of any conclusion they could come to, this one made the most sense, with the most weight behind it. What choice did he have, but to accept it? He had wanted the uncertainty to end, wanted some form of conclusion of what had happened, just to end that uncertainty, but this wasn't the conclusion any of them had wanted, yet it seemed to be the only possible explanation for Exile's disappointment.

"I'm afraid I have no choice Hunter, I'm going to make an official announcement tomorrow with all of you present." The master tells the three in the room, showing his strength as a true master should in the face of bad news. "Exile is the first; and hopefully the last road rover to have fallen in the line of duty. I know it's not what anybody wanted to hear, but we can't ponder on this while danger could strike at any moment. Professor Hubert, I need you to investigate the mysterious nature of the attack first thing tomorrow; I want answers on this as soon as possible. Hunter, Coleen; I suggest you get some rest tonight, tomorrow will not be an easy day for any of us."

"Understood master." They all replied at once, like usual, though with less enthusiasm than would normally be present. Professor Hubert left down a separate corridor from Coleen and Hunter, leaving the room with the collar on the table for all the others to see tomorrow. Hunter couldn't talk; the lump in his throat seemed to restrict his very ability to express himself. He was thinking again, about how he had given the order for Blitz and Exile to fly on ahead, alone and without support. Was he responsible? Was it that very decision that had lead to Exile's tragic demise? Had he, without meaning to, played a direct role in the death of one of his comrades? Thankfully, Coleen gave him an excuse not to answer that question, asking if he wanted to spend the night with her, if just so that they didn't have to suffer alone.

"Thanks Coleen, I just-I don't-I don't think I can cope alone." Hunter accepts the offer gratefully in a heavily broken voice, his throat sore from the lump in his throat. Tears had started forming in the corners of his eyes.

"I know, to tell you the truth, I don't wanna be alone tonight either." Coleen replied with a forced note of laughter. Maybe that was her way f coping, Hunter thought, trying to drown the sorrow with laughter.

He allowed her to guide him down onto her soft bed, it was softer than Hunter's anyway and he sunk fairly deep into the mattress, his was also a double bed though, he always felt more comfortable with a little extra room, but tonight he was grateful for Coleen's company as she lay down beside him. Neither of them got too close that night though, instead just opting to sleep on the covers with their armour still on, simply having each other's company was enough for now, if just so they knew they weren't suffering alone. Hunter refused to allow himself to carry on thinking anymore that night and forced himself into a deep sleep quickly, he would have plenty of time to sleep tomorrow and he was sure he was going to do plenty of it….

**Well, here's the fourth chapter, the fifth will hopefully be along soon. Until then read and reviews are very much appreciated especially comments on the story and it's content so far.**


	5. Chapter 5 A Change of Heart

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 5-A Change of Heart**

**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Road Rovers, if I did you could be sure that there'd be another few seasons in the making.**

His eyes heart badly if he tried to open them, even if it was just a little squint, the light that poured into them gave him the painful sensation of having sulphuric acid throw into them. In the moments he had managed to open them, he came to realise he was in a tank of some kind, suspended in a watery, but somehow gel like green substance, outside the tank he could see a large room that looked like a state-of-the-art laboratory of some kind. He could see various people moving around as well, unrecognisable dark figures of unknown species. If someone cared to look as he briefly opened his eyes, they would see throbbing red capillaries pronounced against the ice blue iris of his large orbs.

Suddenly, he began to feel drowsy and his body began to relax as a powerful anaesthetic gas was pumped into a black mask that had been placed over his muzzle. He hadn't been able to work out its purpose when he awoke to discover it there, but now he was certain that it was used to provide him with a fresh supply of oxygen within the cool, somehow soothing liquid. Before he drifted off into a deep sleep, Exile heard a woman speaking in a Scottish brogue, apparently ordering some subordinates.

"Drain the tank and prepare him for the surgery, the general wants no screw ups with this. And somebody go and get those powerful eye drops I left in storage…" The rest of what the woman said was drowned out, as the intoxicating power of the anaesthetic forced him into a state of deep sleep.

"Ouchy! That hurt worst than hard bite on behind by Blitz!" Exile shouted, as he tried to open his eyes, only for them to be greeted by a brightly burning light above him. He tried to rub them, but found that his arms and legs were secured tightly down by some kind of metal restraints. He tried with all his strength to try and break free from the binds, but not even his super strength could break them, they seemed to be specifically designed to prevent one with his strength to pull them apart. If he were to guess, he'd say they were attached to a pneumatic powered device of some kind, judging by the low hiss he heard every time he tried to break them. If only he could see them, he might've been able to determine their function.

"Calm down pooch! Those bonds were made especially for you in case you tried to escape, so there's really no point in trying." A voice suddenly said, a woman's the one he had heard before he passed out, one that was strangely familiar, but it couldn't be-could it? "Now stay still while I fix you up, the general wants you specially looked after. Besides you've been out for a week, not a good idea to push yourself."

He didn't have a chance to reply before his left eye was forced open by a hand covered by a black leather glove. His eye burned intensely as it was exposed to the light above him, he tried to close it, but the fingers kept it open and he yelped and growled as the pain grew more intense by the second. He could remember how intense the pain had been when he first received the injury from the intensely burning sun and the pain he had felt then.

"Oh, that's nasty! Your lucky you haven't gone blind pooch!" The woman said a certain amount of disgust in her voice. "Good thing you haven't, the general wouldn't be pleased if he found out you couldn't use your heat, ice and super vision! What use would you be then?" After she spoke, she poured a clear liquid into the open eye and then proceeded to do the same with his right eye. Blinking rapidly, Exile had expected the liquid to make his eyes burn further, but instead, they actually seemed numb the pain and as he blinked the droplets out, the room started coming into a sharper focus, still a little blurry, but he could at least distinguish different, colours and shapes, he just couldn't see any great detail.

He focused his eyes on the woman standing over him, from what he could tell, she was wearing a red outfit with black gloves and boots and she seemed to have long, black hair. He couldn't tell her facial features though, it was still too blurry. She suddenly shined a small, but bright light into his eyes, apparently inspecting them.

"Hmm, a few more drops should do it." She said, adding a few more drops of the liquid into each eye. The effect was incredible! The pain was gone except for some minor aching, though it was nothing worst than opening the curtains to a bright day early in the morning. On top the pain being dissipated, he could now see almost perfectly once he had blinked the excess fluid out, the only small problem was that outlines seemed very slightly out of focus, but other than that, everything was near perfect! What ever that stuff was; it was good.

He looked up at the woman that had applied the eye drops and gasped sharply as he looked into her face. It was the Groomer, Parvo's right hand woman! "Wha-wha-what are you doing here!? Where am I!?" Exile growled, panicking and trying to break free from his bonds again. He didn't like this situation at all. He was in a mysterious medical lab somewhere, fully restrained so that not even his super strength could break him free and to make matters worst; the lead henchman of one of the road rovers' greatest enemies was standing over him. So then, why was she standing over him tending to his wounds?

"I already told you puppy dog, those restraints have been specially made to hold you, there's no point in strugglin', take a look if you don't believe me." She said calmly to him as he pressed a few keys on a console beside the stretcher he was on, instructing it to move to an upright position. As it did so, it became known to Exile that he was lying on more of a frame, with lengths of metal supporting his back, head and all his limbs. The room had the look of a medical bay about it; presumably the stretcher was designed this way, so that someone could work on the back of a patient, without actually having to move them.

Exile now turned his attention to the restraints that held, it was times like this it was handy that he was the master at fixing and un-fixing things in the road rovers team. "Hmm, restraints made of metal held back by powerful pneumatic pressure arm made stronger with more help from hydraulic pressure…" Exile pulled at the restraints to confirm his suspicions as the restraints initially moved up slightly as he bent his wrist, only to be held back with a faint hiss as extra air and liquid pressure was immediately applied to account for the extra strain. Not a bad effort he thought, but he wasn't a road rover for nothing; he had powers normal strong cano-mutants didn't, his hot eye lasers could easily melt the bonds. With a smirk he focused his sight on one of the bonds ready to blast it with a beam of hot energy, but nothing happened. Raising an eyebrow he tried again, but harder this time, again with no result, for some reason the only response he got was a sharp ache at the back of his skull.

"I wouldn't waste your energy pooch. We've already taken care of that little trick, but don't worry, we'll explain everything later. Now hold still while I rub some ointment on those burns." The groomer said, having watched his failed attempts at escape with an obvious sense of satisfaction. "And to answer your question from earlier, you're in General Parvo's new secret base in Siberia, as for the reason you're here; don't you remember the crash? Those new underground anti-air missile launchers combined with the decoy worked it seems."

Exile tried to look around as the groomer moved behind the stretcher where he couldn't see her, he suddenly felt a painful burning on his right arm, turning his head quickly to see what had caused the pain, and he saw her hand rubbing some translucent gel to some blackened, badly burnt skin he had previously neglected to notice. The skin was exposed where the fur covering a large section of his forearm had been burned off. Of course he could remember the crash clearly enough, he could remember the excruciating struggle to save the stricken sky rover while painfully blinded and with Blitz having a panic attack in the co-pilot's seat. After the initial impact though, he drew a blank, all he could really remember was flying through the shattered glass window of the cockpit from where he had taken off his seatbelt to try and find the radio and hitting solid ground before blacking out.

"You said something about underground missiles, is that how you attacked without letting us know? First luring us out with a wrong impression?" Exile asked, agitated once more. "And what happened to Blitz!? Did you take him too? Is he safe? And what was that stuff you put in my eyes? Why can I see now?" The questions all popped into his head one after the other, each serving to make him more anxious. It was Blitz he was most concerned about though; being the pilot of the sky rover he was technically responsible for the lives of all on board. If he found out he had failed to save the life of a comrade, his Siberian pride as well as his own guilt would lead him to punish himself for his mistakes. "Also, why can I not use my Siberian deep freeze or anything else!?"

"Well, this is a burn ointment gel, before you ask." The groomer replied, pausing for a moment after the vast bombardment of questions. "Well that's quite a list of questions there isn't it pooch? Now, where to begin, alright I'll answer them in order." She resumed applying the burn ointment to Exile's arm before beginning.

"Well you see, you've recently attracted the General's interest, your uncanny ability to fix, build or sabotage equipment, disable security systems and to create explosives and devices to bypass security locks especially caught the General's interest. So, he ordered I devise a plan to capture you. You've got a few burns behind your ears by the way, could you tilt your head forward a bit please?" She asked, deciding there was a sufficient amount on his arm. Exile obeyed, moving his head forward to allow her to apply the cool gel behind his ears, where there were patches of fur that had been singed clean off, the sensation was similar to that of being scratched behind the ears by the Russian Premier and he might've enjoyed it had circumstances been different.

"Anyway," The groomer continued while she applied liberal amounts of the ointment behind Exile's ears where the skin had been particularly badly singed. "I ordered a platoon of burrowing tanks capable of carrying missiles to that canyon where you crashed, after we were sure your satellite had picked them up, we ordered them to burrow beneath the surface of the canyon and wait for you to arrive, luckily you arrived alone in that jet of yours with only that coward co-pilot, turned out to be the perfect ambush. After you crashed you ended up outside the aircraft, again making it easier to quickly recover you before your friends arrived. Now, what was your next question? Oh yeah, your friend." She paused briefly to squirt some more of the gel onto her fingers and began applying it to his left ear.

"Your friend is fine; the other rovers arrived just after we took you and presumably took your friend back to your base when they couldn't find you. He looked alright, nothing serious enough to kill him; unfortunately." Exile's heart leaped and he blew out hard, relieved by the news that Blitz was safe, he was confident that Coleen took care of any injuries he had. "As for what I put in your eyes, they were powerful eye drops we designed to wash out the stuff that was in your eyes, you see, it wasn't the sun that blinded you, it was a micro-bomb containing some radio-active dust that was thrown onto your front window before we launched the missile, that's probably what made the glass shatter, anyway, only these eye drops can clear it up, if you don't have them, it takes a couple of weeks for the dust to lose it's power." She stopped applying the ointment and placed it on a surgical tray next to the console she used to control the stretcher. "As for why you can't use your eye powers, well, the General wants to explain that himself."

She picked up a radio that was attached to her waist belt and spoke into it. "He's ready now general, you can come in now if you want." She ended the transmission without reply and stood in front of Exile, observing his torso. They had removed the upper half of his armour, but left the lower half on, for which he was grateful, being the bashful soul that he was. He thought hard about what happened, the back of his skull aching again, he didn't know what it was, but it seemed somehow unnatural. So they had been after him all along, no-one else, just him, but why? What great threat did he pose to them? He thought back to the beginning of the conversation, what had she meant by General Parvo using his Siberian deep freeze, of which he was proud of, as well as his other eye powers? Surely Parvo didn't expect him to turn on the road rovers? He'd never do that, he loved being a road rover, either way, he was eager to get some answers.

It didn't take too long for General Parvo to arrive with one his cano-mutants dawning a balaclava as a personal bodyguard. In the few minutes it took for them to arrive, the groomer had started applying some anti-septic cream to some small abrasions on his chest, which stung like hell. The first thing the General did before speaking was order the groomer to give him a lozenge to relieve a chesty cough that had plagued him for several years now.

"Greetings road rover, I've no doubt your wondering why I had my men bring you here?" The general said in a deep, raspy voice once the lozenge had done its job. He didn't wait for a reply from Exile before continuing though. "Well, seeing as we've taken up quite bit of time just getting you ready anyway, I'll cut to the chase. I want you to join me and our glorious organisation and fight off the troublesome road rovers, so that we may overthrow the earth's governments and bring them to their knees!" He threw his fist in the air as a means of expression as he spoke the last few words.

Exile was so shocked by the suddenness of the offer that he didn't reply for a few moments; surely even Parvo wasn't so foolish as to assume that he would turn on his comrades? "I do not think you have done very good thinking about this, even you must know that neither one of us, not even Blitz-would ever betray our comrades?" He was going to ask why he had been captured specifically, but remembered that the groomer had already explained this. Before Parvo offer a rebuttal however, the masked cano-mutant spoke to him.

"What is your name road rover?" The masked bodyguard asked in a Russian accent that wasn't s strong as Exile's.

Exile tilted his head to one side at the question, it wasn't often that the cano-mutants spoke, let alone asked a half-intelligent question. "To my comrades, I am Exile, to you, I am Exilo Mikhailovich Sanhusky." He replied in a defiant tone, showing his lack of respect for his capturers.

"Hah, is that what you call yourself now? You truly have become weak, Alexandr." The cano-mutant replied with apparent amusement. At Exile's response, that consisted of a questioning, if frightened look. "That's right I know you, your true name and identity, the name you carry now is nothing, but a mask." He spoke the last sentence in Russian.

"How do you know-wait- your voice, you can't be you di-." Exile began, his voice shaking with fear now, looking as if though he had seen a ghost.

"-died on that cliff edge all those years ago? No, I'm afraid you do not get off that easily," The bodyguard seemed to be positively teeming with a sick sort of delight at making Exile suffer now. Slowly, he pulled off the balaclava mid-sentence to reveal the face of a cano-sapien Siberian husky, who could've had an uncanny resemblance to Exile, had it not been for bits of grey fur on his face and a long scar running down his left eye. "-my son."

Exile's face was frozen into an expression of pure fear for a few moments as he was confronted with the face of his father, whom he long thought to be dead, and buried. Slowly though, his face began to twist into an expression of hatred. "You…you…I KILL YOU!" He suddenly shouted, again struggling to break free of his bonds while straining to let out a blast of his heat vision, a powerful one at the figure that had named himself as his father. The bonds began to struggle against his strength now, screeching as the metal began to stretch. Try as he might though, he couldn't use his heat vision, all he got was that pain at the back of his skull that grew and grew until finally, a powerful bolt of electricity was sent through his body and seemed to emanate from that very spot.

"Now, now, that's no way to greet your old dad is it? Though I guess it doesn't change anything you're still as weak as you were before." The figure approached Exile, until he was standing right up to his face. "And what kind of a name was that to choose? Did you truly think it would change who you really are?"

Exile was panting heavily from the shock, every muscle in his body aching painfully, but he did not care, the hatred he felt at that moment was great. He had never needed to hate anything while in the road rovers and hadn't felt it in a while, but now, everything had changed. "It has a better ring to it than Alexandr Borisovich Vasiliev…" He panted in Russian, his eyes half-closed from the exhaustion of the sudden attack. "And what are you doing trans-transdogrified anyway…?"

"Well, since the good General set up this base in our glorious mother land, it was easy to sign up and besides, it's more interesting for us to talk this way don't you think?" He placed his hand under Exile's chin to lift it up enough that he was looking into his eyes. It was the greatest difference of their natural features together; where Exile's were bright and full of life reflecting on his happy go lucky attitude, his father's were dull and listless, reflecting on a life full of nothing but pure resentment for the world. "Hmm, your eyes are still too clear, good thing the general came up with a way to solve that problem eh?" He pulled his hand away, letting Exile's head drop to his chest. "I'm done here General, I will return to my quarters, be sure to take good care of my son."

Parvo and the Groomer had done naught, but watch as the 'reunion' of father and son took place and didn't talk until Boris had left the room. "I'm going to go and make some calls to our investors." Parvo said, turning to the groomer. "If you are finished with his treatment, activate his focus and have him ready for his duties as head engineer tomorrow morning."

"Of course General, I'll start his initiation immediately." The groomer replied, saluting Parvo as he left. She then walked over to the console next to Exile's stretcher and began pressing some of the keys.

Exile was still panting, trying to control his breathing, it was bad enough having been captured, but to have had his past catch up to him so suddenly was even worst. He looked out the corner of his eye at the groomer too exhausted now to lift his head. His vision was also blurry again; it had been a powerful electrical strike and had seemed to emanate from the very back of his brain. "What was Boris doing here? Where did he come from?" Exile asked, panting still. "If you thought he would help make me join you; you were wrong…"

"Boris? He arrived shortly after we set up this base here, he's been just about the only dog we've had that's been transformed willingly, except your brother Yevgeny of course, your quite the odd one out in your family you know." The groomer replied, looking up briefly to answer him. Exile's eyes would've widened had he had the strength. _Yevgeny is alive as well!_ He thought, almost in utter despair now. The whole situation was just getting better and better. "And as for bringing him here to try and convince you to join us; that's not true. We weren't going to be so naïve as to think that one of the road rovers would turn on their own willingly. Oh no, we designed something very special to make you turn. You should be honored to have had so much effort made just for you."

"What you mean something to make me turn?" Exile asked only mildly interested now, his thoughts having turned to the subject of his family he had hoped were long forgotten and lost.

"Well, I could go into a lengthy explanation, but I think it'll be more sporting to show you." The groomer replied once more, apparently entering a final command into the console. Suddenly, Exile's thoughts were interrupted by an over-whelming pressure that had developed on his brain stem, his body began to tense and shake violently as unnatural electrical impulses were sent through his brain. His eyes rolled up into the top of his head and his neck shot up as well, as his body, his mind and his very soul were overpowered by forces unknown. Whatever pain it was causing his body though, was quickly overshadowed by the violent, horrific images that were being etched into his mind now, images pulled from the darkest recesses of his mind, images that were meant to be forgotten.

It stopped as suddenly as it had began and his body hung limply from the binds of the stretcher, his eyelids twitching rapidly over his eyes, not allowing him to close them, confronting him with the aftershock of the experience. He wasn't being let off easy…Finally though, the twitching began to slow down and his eyelids began to drop steadily, at last allowing him the peace of unconsciousness.

"Welcome to the new order, Alexandr…" Were the last echoing words he heard before his eyelids finally dropped over his ice blue eyes, allowing darkness to overtake them…

**Well, finally managed to get this blasted chapter out of the way. Sorry for the long walls of dialogue, I was trying to get the most important of the explanation for this part of the story out of the way in this chapter, so that I can progress into the next part of the story. As usual reviews of the story and its plot are always appreciated; I know I left a few loose ends here, but I intend to tie those up in future chapters, be sure to let me know if there is anything specific that is bothering you.**


	6. Chapter 6 Duty Calls

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 6-Duty Calls**

**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Road Rovers, if I did you could be sure that there'd be another few seasons in the making. The Characters Reggie and Reidar are the only characters thought up by me.**

One year (that's seven dog years) had passed since the crash that had claimed Exile's life and left the road rovers short of one happy go lucky, loyal and sometimes funny friend. It had been terrible for Hunter the morning after he and Coleen had been informed of the decision to class Exile the first road rover to die during a mission. Like he intended he had slept well that night, but it could never have prepared him for having to hear the news a second time, this time with all of the remaining rovers present. He could remember the master standing above them on his banister, with Exile's singed collar lying on a small table before them as he told the rest of the rovers the grim news, remembered Coleen gripping his hand tightly as the master spoke, though it was unable to prevent the violent shaking.

Shag and Blitz had been standing a few feet away from them, had noticed his solemn look as the master called them around, they knew it was going to be bad news, they just didn't know how bad, until the master finally revealed it. Shag had immediately started whining and crying after the master finished speaking and run to his room, his anguished, incomprehensible cries could be heard echoing from his room, even after the door had been slammed shut. Muzzle had been 'standing' on Hunter's left and started whining unnaturally for him and cried into Hunter's shoulder, while Hunter stroked his head trying to comfort him, while also trying to hold himself together. In the meantime, Coleen had followed Shag into his room to try and console him, leaving Hunter to comfort Muzzle, with Blitz with his bandaged head, staring blankly at the singed, red collar on the table.

It was Blitz, Hunter felt most sorry for, after all, it had been him who was with Exile in his final moments, who had survived the accident where Exile had not and knew that as soon as he had heard the master's words, he must've been reliving the experience all over again. Eventually he had simply walked away from the room without so much as a moan, apparently just wanting time alone in his room. Hunter might've followed at that moment had he not been trying to console Muzzle, who for all accounts and purposes was his best friend, he couldn't just leave him alone, so he had taken to hugging the Rottweiler, patting him on the back and offering words of comfort, until eventually he had decided to bounce off to the master's quarters, apparently requiring the company of his master.

He had then decided to follow after Blitz and found that the door to his room had only been pulled to; still he knocked a couple of times before he entered. He remembered Blitz, standing in the shower, still wearing his armour, with the dial set to the coldest temperature possible. He had approached him cautiously until he was just outside the cubicle.

"Hey there Blitz, how are you holding up?" Hunter asked in as softer voice as he could muster. In truth, he had been afraid of what Blitz would say, after all he had always complained about Hunter being the leader and Hunter had already been beating himself up over having sent Exile and Blitz to scout ahead, he wasn't sure if he could cope if Blitz said those words.

"This isn't a dream is it?" Was all head to reply, his head hung low, apparently unaffected by the cold shower. "If this were a dream, I would've woken up by now."

Hunter tilted his head slightly and sighed at this response, it was obvious now, that Blitz was giving himself the coldest shower possible, in an attempt to wake himself up, hoping against hope that this was all a horrible nightmare. "Blitz, I know how you feel, but this is real. Exile is dead-there's no bringing him back."

"Ja, I know that now and it's my fault, if only I hadn't panicked…" Blitz had replied, turning off the shower, before reaching for a towel to wipe his face.

"No Blitz, it's not your fault! You're not to blame and neither am I, the only one to blame is Parvo!" He had suddenly blurted out, immediately after Blitz had spoken. It was alright for him to blame himself, but he wouldn't have any of his team mates trying to take responsibility, beating themselves up and now that he had said it, the only one who really was to blame was Parvo himself.

"Thanks Hunter, I guess your right, but it doesn't help things, Exile is still dead and I was with him when it happened, I was right there and I couldn't help him." Blitz had replied walking over to his dresser and staring at his reflection, a solemn gleam in his eyes; it was obvious he had been trying to hold back tears. "Please, just leave, I would prefer to be alone." He had then said, before Hunter could get another word in. Hunter hadn't argued, he just left, thinking that it probably was better to leave Blitz alone to grieve, knowing he wouldn't want anyone present. When he had thought about it, he needed his own time to let things sink in.

That was all of seven dog years ago and the team had been forced to move on since, they had had a few missions to keep themselves occupied throughout the year, a lot of them due to Havoc, who'd somehow managed to escape his prison and had caused all sorts of, well, havoc since his escape. Unfortunately though, Parvo had been pretty quiet, not a word of his activities since the ambush, much to the rovers' dismay as they had all wanted payback for Exile.

Hunter glanced around the recreation room from the sofa in front of the TV, Shag was sitting on a corner table with a huge pile of assorted food, gulping it down without chewing; Coleen was playing an apparently intense game of table tennis with Reidar, a Norwegian Elkhound who'd joined their ranks a month after Exile's death along with Reggie, a German Shepherd Wolf cross who was currently playing card pairs with himself at another table in the far corner of the room using the light of a single lamp. Hunter's eyes then fell upon Blitz, who was sitting alone on a table in the middle of the room with two peppermint milkshakes. He had done that everyday since the small memorial service they had held for Exile, three days after the news of his death. Hunter knew it was Blitz's way of remembering Exile, since Blitz had made Exile try one, they had both become hooked on the things and now Blitz drank two a day; one for him and one for Exile. The team had somehow learned to live with the loss though, the week before had been the anniversary of Exile's death and instead of mourning the loss, they had used it as a day of remembering the good points of once having had Exile around and for that, Hunter was glad, he had at least stopped blaming himself for making the decision of sending Exile and Blitz to scout ahead.

He turned his attention back to Reidar, or Rei as the team called him, battling it out in a lengthy round of table tennis with Coleen. Most of his fur was completely dark brown, except for his face and paws which were black. He sometimes reminded Hunter of Exile, he was social, friendly, had a distinctive foreign accent, being from Norway and all, the differences were that he was not quite as big or loud as Exile, spoke better English, in as nicer way as possible he wasn't as good at offering advice or having a private conversation and he seemed to actually shower every now and then, which Hunter couldn't help, but admit was quite refreshing. As for his powers, he was a brilliant pilot who seemed like he had been born in a plane, was a genius when it came to hacking and had the unique ability of being able to control electricity by collecting it and storing it in his fur.

He looked over at Reggie sitting alone with interest; he didn't know what to think of him. His fur was almost completely grey, but with slightly darker colouration around the face, he like Coleen was from England, but in contrast was very well spoken and clear cut and he always insisted on wearing that odd black armour of his, that seemed to almost to be a part of his body he wore it so much, his road rovers collar stood out against it. He was also so secretive, never wanting to talk to anyone about himself despite Hunter's best efforts, most of the time all he did was read, play card pairs like he was now or else relax alone in the simulation chamber. Despite his secretive nature though, he was a welcome member of the team especially on a mission, he was intelligent, quick, agile and a master of staying hidden. Every other member of the team had spoken to Hunter and all said they thought he had more talents and powers than he was letting on though, even Blitz had spoken to him in private saying that, 'he crept him out', but as Hunter had said to each of them, there was no way of proving it.

Hunter's thoughts were interrupted suddenly as Reidar dived backward to try and reach the ping pong ball after a power shot from Coleen. He landed squarely on Hunter's lap and as soon as they made contact, Hunter's teeth started chattering, his ears stood erect and his fur fuzzed up as some excess electricity escaped Reidar's fur.

"Oh sorry Hunter!" Reidar exclaimed, rolling off of the sofa and onto the rug. As soon as Reidar was off Hunter relaxed again. "Guess I got a little too competitive. I think that's your match Coleen."

"I think so; good match there Rei." Coleen panted, placing her racket on the table before walking over. "Call it revenge for last night, eh?"

"Yeah, but the so obviously did not clip the net, it was a fair-." Rei began before being cut off by the Master's voice.

"Rovers listen up! I need you all to report to the briefing room immediately!" The voice said a somewhat more urgent tone in it than usual. "And no Shag it _cannot_ wait until after lunch!" Hunter and Coleen shared a brief suspicious glance toward each other, before all the rovers headed off down the hallway, Blitz hanging back slightly to down his milkshake. Once they were inside the briefing room, they all sat down around the table.

"Don't get too comfortable rovers, I need you mission ready as soon as possible. There's a group robbing a shipment of gold secretly being stored at the royal bank of Scotland. Parvo's forces are behind the robbery." He put a certain amount of weight on the last sentence, immediately, Hunter, Coleen, Shag and Blitz stood at the ready, Reidar and Reggie following suit after the others. "I don't think I need to tell you what to do rovers; get to it!"

The Master was right, they didn't need any great detail, Parvo was apparently up and active again and though they had moved on since, none of them had ever forgotten the attack that had taken Exile away from the team. Reg and Rei didn't question why everybody was so worked up about the situation, merely followed behind the others as they headed toward the vehicle hangar.

Hunter arrived in the hanger first and found that Muzzle was already waiting by the cloud rover, eager to join them. Hunter wasn't about to argue, there was one thought on his mind at the moment and that was getting Parvo back for Exile and what better way to do it than with Muzzle at their side.

"Shag, Blitz, Coleen; you come in the cloud rover me and Muzzle. Reg, Rei I want you to take the new jet rover and follow us." Hunter ordered before entering the cloud rover and jumping in the pilot's seat. Coleen sat next to him and Shag and Blitz took seats in the back. "Let's hit the road rovers!" Hunter called, powering up the cloud rovers engines without checking to see whether Reg and Rei were in the new jet rover yet. Some might've called his actions careless, but he, Coleen, Blitz and even the normally cowardly Shag were eager to take on Parvo's forces…

**Just a short overview chapter of what's happened since the attack to introduce a couple of new characters as well as to build up to the next chapter. The next one may take a while, so please bear with me.**


	7. Chapter 7 A Greater Enemy

The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 7-A Restless Ghost

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 7-A Greater Enemy**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately I still don't own Warner Bros. Studios or any of its characters, otherwise the next season would already be advertised.**

"Come on, hurry it up! We need to get there in time to stop Parvo!" Blitz was urging impatiently from a couple of seats behind Hunter. The other rovers all understood his impatience; they had all been waiting for an opportunity to get back at Parvo and this had been their first chance since the attack on the sky rover.

"We're at full throttle Blitz and I can't push the controls any further, we're not gonna get any faster without a strong tailwind!" Hunter replied, managing to hide his own frustration as only he could. They were still at least half-an-hour away from reaching the bank and there was little Hunter could do, but hope that Parvo's forces were taking their time with a heavy load from the vault so that they would still be there when the rovers arrived. "Just try to stay focused Blitz, Coleen and I will get us there as soon as we can."

"Fine, just make sure we get there in time for me to bite Parvo's tooshie!" Blitz growled to himself, folding his arms and looking down at the floor space in front of him.

Meanwhile, Reidar and Reggie were cruising in the jet rover about 300 yards to the right of the cloud rover. The jet rover was much smaller than the cloud rover and could only seat two people. It was shaped like half of a Frisbee and was powered by two large jet engines at the back of the jet rover. Inside, Reidar and Reggie were sat side by side in the small cockpit, with Reidar at the controls.

"Man, they're really putting their foot down, any faster and we'll break the sound barrier!" Reidar observed, tapping the air speed indicator dial on his right, making sure it wasn't broken. "They must really wanna take care of this Parvo guy." He looked up at Reggie beside him, hoping for some input. The silence in the cockpit was deafening.

"Well I don't know what more you expected Reidar; they are looking to avenge the death of a friend, motives like that tend to make people and dogs alike think irrationally." Reggie replied with a sigh, glancing out of the corner of his emerald green eyes. "From what I heard from Hunter, the team took it pretty hard."

"Yeah, Coleen told me the same thing, said things had been too quiet since it had happened, that there was no-one to talk to about private stuff after, but on the plus side HQ started to smell a little better afterwards. Still, sounds like he was a real special member of the team." Reidar replied, trying to sound intelligent. He found Reggie's voice had a strange effect on him, made him feel like it was a requirement that he try and at least sound a little smarter.

Once Reidar had finished talking, Reggie looked at the floor of the cockpit with the strangest look on his face, it was a blank expression as though he were day dreaming, but his eyes had a look of deep contemplation about them, as if thinking back to a distant memory. Suddenly, he flicked his head up again and rubbed the back of his skull and made a noise as if a sudden and intense pain had shot through him.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Rei asked him startled by the strange behaviour.

"I'm fine, I just got a bit of a headache all of a sudden, that's all." Reggie replied a serious look on his face all of a sudden. "Anyway enough chatter, we need to concentrate on what lies ahead." He added in a tone that suggested he was in a sudden no nonsense mood.

Rei wasn't about to argue and suddenly got very interested in flying the jet rover. Reggie was strange, the strangest in the group, but no-one seemed to feel comfortable enough to talk to him and ask about his personal life. Recently though, Reidar had gotten very interested in him, especially since he had heard him talking in his sleep a few nights ago, he couldn't really understand a lot of the stuff through his bedroom door, he had only caught a few odd words and phrases, most of them seemed to be about the space rovers and a place called 'Ganymede'. It creeped Reidar out, but he like the others wasn't willing to go into too deep a conversation with Reggie…

Hunter looked down at the ground far below the cloud rover and noticed almost immediately a single large, metallic, heavily fortified building below, surrounded by dangerous bogs and plain, monotonous wasteland, as well as a large perimeter fence complete with watch towers on each corner.. The Master had directed them to the true bank or more specifically the vault, hidden from the public eye, to reduce the risk of an attempted robbery, as ever though, it appeared Parvo had managed to find it using his numerous resources. It was times like this that Hunter realised just how much of a dangerous foe Parvo was, though he's realised that since the loss of Exile…

"Get your seatbelts on rovers; I'm taking us in for a quick landing, Parvo won't get away from us…" Hunter called to the others in the cabin as he began to descend steeply toward the vault, where a single troop carrier ship sat dormant outside the main gate. _That's strange…_ Hunter thought, _you'd think Parvo would bring more than just one group of cano-mutants._ He didn't stop to dwell on the thought though, too eager to get on the ground and take on Parvo.

"Great! Now I get to bite Parvo on his big tooshie! Among other places…" Blitz announced as the cloud rover touched down with a thud, Blitz emphasising his words by crunching his powerful jaws together with an almost metallic ring emanating around the cabin.

Hunter led the rest of the rovers down the ramp of the cloud rover, with him carrying his favourite tennis ball launcher, Shag, a bazooka, Blitz, his fangs and Coleen her fists, with Muzzle bouncing behind at the rear with his dangerous appetite and psychopathic tendencies. As they stepped down onto the concrete within the compound and a deafening silence hit their ears, nothing but the eerie sound of a light breeze to be heard.

"Where is everyone? What 'appened to the guards?" Coleen asked with a slight shiver after a few moments of standing in silence next to Hunter.

"I don't know Coleen, but something doesn't look, feel or smell right about this place…" Hunter replied in a hushed voice, trying not to reveal that he was genuinely creeped out by the whole seen. It reminded him of a horror movie setting where, one person always said; 'It's quiet, too quiet…' He was thankful when Reidar and Reggie touched down in the jet rover, the sound of the powerful supersonic engines breaking the silence.

"Whoa, this doesn't look good." Was all Reidar had to say as he jumped out of the pilot's seat onto the concrete. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"

"You'd think a compound like this would be packed to the rim with guards, especially seeing as they have visitors." Reggie stated as the pair walked to Hunter and the rest of the group, gesturing towards the other empty aircraft, which had the words 'GenPar Inc.' painted gold along the side of the menacing black fuselage.

"Well it looks like we don't have too many of them to deal with at least, shouldn't be too much of a problem." Hunter observed, though he had to admit, he wasn't too confident in the eerie setting and added hastily. "I want everyone to keep your guard up though; this is Parvo we're dealing with."

"Hunter, let me go look at that plane, I might be able to do something to stop that bird taking off." Reidar suggested with a slightly devious glint in his eye.

"Okay, but I want you to come and join us as soon as you're done okay?" Hunter instructed. "And try not to be too long."

"I won't! This is going to be fun…" Reidar replied rubbing his hands together as if he was about to play some childish prank, causing a small, but sudden blue bolt of electricity to jump from his hands, prompting Hunter to hastily step backwards. He quickly made his apologies before hurrying off to the GenPar plane like a kid would run to a candy store.

"You know, I never envisioned him to be the-devious type shall we say? Never met a Norwegian like him." Reggie said, looking after the Elkhound as he disappeared into the plane by a small ramp.

"We've never even met a Norwegian before, he's the first." Coleen replied.

"Right, well I think we're all taking our minds off the task a bit here." Reggie suddenly said, clapping his hands together, all of a sudden acting all professional. "Hunter, I think it's a good idea for me to infiltrate the vault via one of the air vents on the side of the building, once inside I can disable any security systems and dispatch any security personnel and contact you over the radio once I'm done."

"Er, okay, you do that Reg, just one question though; wouldn't it be easier to just go through the front door?" Hunter replied, quite taken aback, not used to such a professional manner coming from one of his team, heck, he wasn't even that professional himself. Obviously Reg had demonstrated his intelligence on previous missions, but never so blatant as now. "I mean, it doesn't look like there are any guards anyway, Parvo's cano-mutants have probably already got them tied up inside or something."

"That may be what it seems like Hunter, but things aren't always what they seem, it's safer that I go in first and confirm things are all in the main entrance and then once I've done that, you and the rest of the rovers can proceed through the main entrance with caution and find Parvo's cano-mutants." Reggie ranted on in his annoying intelligent tone. "That is, unless you object of course?"

"Well, no I-." Hunter began before Reggie cut him off again.

"Good, then I shall let you all know when things are clear." Reggie said one last time before turning around and heading toward the wall of the vault facing them. When he had turned around though and was facing away from the rest of the rovers, he narrowed his emerald green eyes, a very serious, almost menacing glint about them. Something didn't sit right with him about the whole situation and he had good idea about what he would find inside. If his suspicions were right, he would find no living human inside…

"Just how does he think he is going to reach that vent or take on all those guards alone?" Blitz piped up suddenly, frowning after the wolf-dog, noticing just how high up the vent opening was. It might as well have been on the roof it was so high up. "He doesn't even have any real pow-what the?"

"Could that be a power?" Shag asked in his usual gibberish.

"I think it might be Shag old pal." Hunter replied, he like the others watching Reg with a mixture of interest and awe. It seemed that one of the powers that Reggie had been hiding from them on their other missions was the ability to scale walls. He appeared to have somehow managed to attach himself to the wall itself and began climbing or else crawling up the wall. "I always wondered what else that guy could do; I just thought he was smart and stealthy."

"Obviously there's more to 'im than meets the eye. Though I think we all already knew that, well, except maybe Blister here." Coleen observed, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder at Blitz.

"You're lucky you're so cute…" Blitz muttered under his breath in response. "He better not take too long in there, I want to bite Parvo on his big-." Before he could finish however, the small brass name tag on Hunter's collar began to flash red in regular beats.

"That was fast!" Hunter exclaimed, tapping the small tag to answer the call. "That didn't take very long; is it all clear? Did you take care of the guards?"

"I didn't need to. I had a clear run to the security room." Reggie's voice sounded from the collar, over a small amount of static. Even over the static though, Hunter could hear the solemn tone in his voice. "Listen though, you have to keep your guard up once inside, it seems like we'll be dealing with more than just your bog-standard cano-mutants here. And whoever it is that's here has disabled the security systems so I can't see anything on the cameras and they've made it so no-one can repair it. Looks like it's been melted with some kind of laser…"

"Alright, we'll be careful." Hunter replied quickly, eager to deal with Parvo once and for all. Though it seemed like Parvo wasn't at the vault now, Hunter knew they could at least stop him from getting what he wanted and that would have to do for now. "Rovers! Let's get inside and kick cano-mutant butt!" Before any of them could take a step though, Reggie's voice rang out over the radio tags once more.

"Get ready to lose your lunch if you've already had it. It's not a nice scene inside…" The voice warned in the same solemn tone as before. "I'll meet you inside the vault itself and let Reidar know he should meet us there. Just remember; be careful! I'll bet any amount of kibble that that's where Parvo's troops are." The transmission ended with an audible click followed by silence at which Hunter glanced over his shoulder at the other rovers. Reggie's warning had prompted him to be on his guard all of a sudden and he led the team cautiously toward the entrance of the building, which had its doors half-open, half-shut.

Slowly, he pushed open the large door on the left with the end of his tennis ball launcher, sliding himself inside he raised his weapon to eye level briefly, expecting an ambush of cano-mutants inside, instead, he dropped his weapon almost immediately and gasped in shock. He tripped over Coleen's foot and landed on his back side as she attempted to follow him through the small gap in between the large metal doors, he began to pant heavily and the skin below his golden fur went a pale white.

"What's wrong Huntie?" Coleen asked him as he remained frozen to the floor. Realising she wasn't going to get a reply, she heaved open the other heavy door on the right having handed her launcher to Blitz.

As all of them looked inside the large entrance room, they all responded in similar reactions of pure horror. Coleen gasped sharply and clasped her paws hard over her muzzle, having to grab the frame of one of the doors before she collapsed; Shag yelped loudly and curled up in a ball of fluff on the floor covering his eyes; Blitz dropped both his and Coleen's launchers and fell to his knees, holding one his paws over his stomach as he began to retch, bringing up the peppermint milkshake he had drunk all over the concrete floor; even Muzzle appeared to blackout for a moment, his restrainer keeling over with him.

"What-what happened to them!?" Blitz managed to say shakily before retching again.

"I-I-I-I don't know…" Was all Hunter could say in reply. It was now that he realised that what Reggie had said about it 'not being a nice scene inside' was a complete understatement. The large entrance hall was a scene of death Hunter had never even imagined in his darkest nightmares. There were human remains all over the floor and large patches of blood smeared on the wall and somehow, even the ceiling. Most of the bodies seemed unrecognisable, those bodies had been burned and charred beyond recognition or else seemed to have been sliced apart by some savage beast, others still could be recognised, but had their limbs manipulated to stick out in unnatural ways, some even having had their heads twisted to face the wrong way. For some reason though, there seemed to be a few who had no obvious injuries, they were just, staring through lifeless eyes into nothingness.

After some moments of horrified silence, broken only by Blitz's heavy panting Hunter's communication tag suddenly activated. "Hunter, this is Reggie." The voice whispered over the static, prompting Hunter to quickly respond to it, anything to distract him from the scene in the entrance hall.

"Reg, what happened here!? What are we dealing with!?" Hunter began to say loudly down the tag. "The guards-in the entrance hall- they're all de-."

"Shut up!" Reggie's voice hissed from the tag. "I'm nearby the enemy and they're getting closer to where I am, I need you to get here fast!"

"But Reg- the guards what happened!?"

"The enemy happened that's what and the same might happen to me if you don't hurry, I can't deal with all of them at once!" Reggie replied in the same angry hiss. "Listen, Hunter, I know it's horrific and you probably haven't seen something like that before, but right now you need to concentrate! If you want to set things right then come to the vault and help me deal with Parvo's men!"

"Alright-alright, Reg, we'll be there as soon as we can just-hang tight!" Hunter replied shaking his head and shakily standing up.

"Just remember, be careful, they might still set up an ambush! I'll see you when you get here." Reggie's voice replied once more before disappearing in a haze of static.

Hunter took a few deep breaths before turning to speak to the team, what they had seen was unimaginable, but they had to try and concentrate on saving a team member now. He quickly walked over to Muzzle and lifted him up in his restrainer, he had the feeling they were going to need him for this. Coleen was the first to recover after Hunter and even she was on the verge of tears.

"Well, what are we doing now Huntie?" She asked in a hushed voice, supporting Blitz as she shakily helped him to his feet. He now had a trail of peppermint green vomit running down his front, with some still dripping steadily from his chin.

"Reg is in trouble Coleen, we need to help him out, if they find him, well, you know…" Hunter replied trailing off, preferring not to think about it. He moved over to Shag's quivering form and began tugging at the fur on his shoulder, until he finally managed to make him stand up. "Blitz, are you okay to come with us? You look in a little bad shape buddy."

"Of course I'm coming!" Blitz replied, shakily leaning down and picking up his launcher. "What-what would you do without me?" He added, wiping some of the milkshake from his chin. "Besides, I still need to pay Parvo back for Snowball." After all, that's all that had mattered to Blitz the past year, he couldn't stop now, not when an opportunity had finally arrived.

"Good, Shag, you don't have to come if you don't want, I'll understand." Hunter told the large dog softly, gently patting him on the shoulder. He was by far the strongest of them strength wise, but also the most sensitive, Hunter couldn't ask him to come with them. Shag replied to Hunter in a series of low whimpers, just loud enough for him to hear. "Alright buddy, you can stay here and guard the ship, be sure to tell Rei where we're headed and to be careful."

"Muzzle, I don't think I need to ask you do I?" Hunter said, moving over to his old friend. Muzzle's reply was one easily understood by everyone, a fierce, insane look in his eyes followed by loud snarling and growling. "I thought not." Hunter muttered, patting his old friend on the head before moving behind him and grabbing the handles of his restrainer firmly a glint of renewed purpose in his eye. They were here to avenge Exile and stop Parvo's henchman and despite the circumstances they found themselves in, that purpose hadn't changed.

"Coleen, Blitz, are you two ready?" Hunter asked the two, giving both a serious look he had never had to show on any of their other missions together. This was a mission nothing like any they'd ever encountered before, one where there really was no time or room to mess around. Neither of them knew what dark opponents they would be facing inside the vault, but one thing was for sure; it wasn't cano-mutants.

Neither Blitz nor Coleen worded their answer; Blitz clenched his jaws together with a familiar metallic ring and nodded toward Hunter, while Coleen cracked each of her knuckles and walked past Hunter to pick up the Bazooka Shag had dropped and hoisted it onto her shoulder. With Coleen and even Blitz, who had changed greatly since Exile's death, both ready for whatever was waiting for them inside the vault, Hunter pushed Muzzle through the large doors into the entrance hall, taking a deep breath as he noticed a young woman, the secretary perhaps, with her skull smashed open and bleeding on her work desk in the middle of the hall and her glasses cracked beside her head.

Hunter turned away briefly as he heard Shag whimper loudly behind him, he understood the message. "Don't worry Shag, we'll meet you back here in no time with Reggie; you'll see!" Hunter called back, trying to be as convincing as he could among the disfigured human remains around him. "Just remember to tell Rei where to meet us!"

If he was to tell the truth though, he wasn't as confident as usual, but he was better keeping that secret to himself he thought. Having traversed the sea of dead bodies that was the entrance hall, Hunter lead Coleen and Blitz through a small door at the back of the hall and found himself face to face with the huge reinforced door of the vault, which had had a large hole melted through it at the bottom, big enough for them to fit through, but seemingly not large enough to haul millions of dollars worth of gold and money through. That wasn't their concern at the moment though, at the moment they had to think about finding Reg before their enemy did and then confronting them themselves. After what he had seen, the very thought sent a shiver down Hunter's spine.

With one last deep breath, Hunter gripped the handles of Muzzle's restrainer once more and pushed it forward slowly; with Blitz and Coleen following closely, ready to confront whatever force Parvo had employed to cause such death…

**Okay, so first off, sorry it took so long for me to post this next chapter, college has really tried and tested me the past couple of months and left me with one hell of a writer's block. Secondly, this chapter was meant to be longer and contain more progression of the story, however in light of how long it has taken just to write this much, I thought I'd post this now if just to 'break the silence'. Therefore, the next chapter will be used to progress the story further and hopefully give you all something more to look forward to.**


	8. Chapter 8A Friend, a Ghost and a Traitor

The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 5- A Change of Heart

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 8-A Friend, a Ghost and a Traitor**

**Disclaimer: I absolutely do not own Road Rovers or any other shows made by Warner Bros. Studios, though I wish that were the case so that Superman could've been axed instead of the Road Rovers.**

The Rovers' steps echoed loudly on the steel floor of the vault, prompting Hunter to call the three to a stop just a few feet into the vast room. For a long time, Hunter had seen the Road Rovers HQs main hall as the largest room he would ever see, a quick glance around him was enough to tell him he had been mistaken.

Rows upon rows of gold and cash boxes filled the room, stacked high up to the ceiling which had railed walkways over hanging high above them, easily as high as one hundred feet above the cold, hard floor. There were long corridors apparently criss-crossing around the room, making it impossible to tell just how far the room stretched and the thought of navigating the maze which lay before them made Hunter nervous to say the least, it would be difficult to locate the enemy here, even with a dog's nose to help them. There were plenty of places the unknown enemy could hide and ambush them if they risked traversing the long room and with such a confined space to fight in, conditions weren't really ideal to work in. Letting go of Muzzle's restrainer, Hunter tapped his communication tag with his hand and spoke into it.

"Reg, are you there? Can you hear me?" He whispered quietly, though even these few quiet words seemed to travel in the vast space. "Is it safe for you to talk?"

After a few moments of silence from the tag, Hunter glanced over at Coleen, exchanging a worried look. If Reggie wasn't replying it could mean one of two things; one he was very close to the enemy, or two he had already been found. Neither idea was very comforting, thankfully though, the tense silence was broken by a short burst of static, followed by a familiar well-spoken voice.

"Yeah, I can hear you and it should be safe to talk as long as you keep your voice down." The voice responded in an equally hushed tone, much to Hunter's relief. "Whereabouts are you?"

"We're just by the entrance, there's no sign of Parvo's men here." Hunter replied, still whispering, not comfortable with the way in which his voice travelled. "Where are you? Are you still near Parvo's men?"

"Okay, well I'm where I can see you and where I can see Parvo's men; you're not close at the moment, though I'm afraid to say I'm not so fortunate." Reg replied somewhat grimly. "By the way where's Shag? Do you know if Reidar has finished playing around yet?"

"Shag is-guarding the jet rover and we've told him to send Rei our way when he's finished." Hunter replied, now glancing up at the ceiling. If Reg could see all of them, then he had to be high up. "Reg, I have to ask you; do you know who Parvo's guys are? You saw what happened in the entrance didn't you? We need to know who we're dealing with! We've already got a good idea how dangerous they are…"

"Of course I saw what was in the entrance; I'm the one that warned you about it. Now about the enemy." Reg began, pausing momentarily. "As you've already noted; they are dangerous and we'll need as many as we can to help fight them, so I'd weight for Reidar to get here first."

"I don't know any specifics about any of them bar one. There are four of them in all; I think three of them are Siberian huskies judging by their tails, they're all wearing balaclavas and full sneaking suits though, so I'm not sure who they are exactly, though they're definitely all male. There is also one other," Reg paused once more and Hunter could hear some movement over the tag. Perhaps he was repositioning himself? "I'm particularly concerned about this one; she's a female border collie by the name of Nemesis Giannakopoulos and I can tell you she certainly lives up to the name. I suggest you leave her to me, she isn't exactly what you could call a tame canine."

"You sound like you know her, like you've met her before." Coleen interrupted suddenly, frowning in a suspicious kind of manner.

"Oh I know her alright, I won't deny it, we we're-transdogrified at the same time as each other and received the same training. I can't waste time explaining though; we need to wait for Reidar and think of how we are going to deal with this lot." Reggie continued, un-phased by Coleen's suspicious tone.

"I didn't know we had training." Hunter muttered quietly to Blitz, not sure whether to believe Reg's story. "Reg, you've got a better view of what's going on where you are, do you have any ideas of what to do?" Hunter asked, deciding it would be best to save the questions for later.

"I do have one or two ideas actually, I think at any rate the best approach would be to-hold on, what's going on here?" Reg suddenly said his voice full of alarm. "What the hell!?"

Hunter didn't have time to ask Reggie what was going on before the answer became obvious even to him in the form of the entire stock of gold and money suddenly fading away before them in a hazy aqua blue light. As the light faded, the four rovers were left standing, exposed in the large room that was now revealed to be at least the length of two full rugby fields. In the middle of the room stood four figures, as Reggie had told them, looking straight across the room at them, so that both groups appeared to be staring each other down in some old style western show down.

Briefly glancing upwards, Hunter hoped to catch a glimpse of Reggie hiding somewhere in the room, but he remained invisible even to the rovers as their tags went silent. The biggest of the three huskies began to talk in a familiar language that rolled off of the tongue to the other two males and once he had finished talking the three began to laugh in the kind of way a lion might when faced with a mouse. Hunter recognised the language as Russian, having heard Exile go on a long rant of swearing and cursing when he had spilt hot coffee down himself one morning.

"These are the ones that Parvo mentioned? I thought there were more of them." The female Border collie observed, sounding almost bored with the whole situation. "A shame, I was hoping for a little more sport than this." Her voice sounded like it could've belonged to an American Special Forces commander, the kind that specialised in weaning out the weak or else causing others to 'break'. Just from hearing her speak made Hunter glad Reg had volunteered to fight her, where ever he was. Strangely though, Hunter noticed that she seemed to be wearing almost the exact same armour that Reggie always wore.

"I know how you feel Nemesis, but we will just have to take our time with them and then deal with their scardy-cat friends outside." The large husky spoke again, this time in perfect English, but with the same mocking tone. "I want to 'play' with their leader, the gold Labrador."

"Fine, then I'll take the female; I guess it's only fair." Nemesis sighed, folding her arms. "Might also settle some dispute over breeding."

"Then I want the Rottweiler! I like the crazy look he has in his eyes!" The smallest husky called out, pointing at Muzzle. "Looks like you get the Doberman brother!" He like the largest seemed to speak perfect English. The other husky didn't say a word, but merely shrugged and murmured something in Russian.

"No that's settled, I think we must remember our manners and introduce ourselves." The largest said, performing a fancy bow before speaking again. "My name is Boris Yaroslevic Vasiliev and these are my two sons Yevgeny and-."

Boris, didn't have time to finish his sentence before Hunter, who had stood silently bemused by the behaviour of the four henchman, glanced left as he saw Blitz, who seemed to be absolutely fuming take a step forward and fire a shot from his tennis ball launcher straight at Boris yelling, "Mein Gott, will you just shut up!"

Blitz's look of sheer anger quickly switched to one of shock and bewilderment with his jaw dropping as Hunter looked back to the four opponents to discover that Nemesis, who had been standing a good few feet away from Boris, had somehow managed to move from where she had been standing to grab the tennis ball when it was just inches away from Boris' face.

"You know what Coleen; I think its better that I fight that girl in the black instead of you." Hunter suggested turning his head to face Coleen. "I think I might be the only one fast enough to-."

"I thought, I had already made it clear that _I _would be fighting you!" Boris barked loudly, raising his finger. "And you-." He growled, pointing at Blitz. "It's not polite to butt in when someone else is talking!"

"Ack, du leber! Why don't you shut up yapping and fight like a dog!" Blitz barked, quickly recovering from his moment of shock and raising his launcher again. This time though, he didn't even get a chance to shoot as suddenly, Hunter felt a strong gust of wind rush past him, throwing Blitz against the large steel door of the vault before he slumped to the floor with a thud.

"You need to learn some manners puny Doberman!" The husky called Yevgeny barked having removed his balaclava and letting his arms drop to his sides after he had held them outwards to blast Blitz with a strong gust of air. Having removed his balaclava, Hunter could see that Yevgeny had a more chestnut coloured fur and brown eyes as opposed to blue and his nose was a fleshy pink colour.

"Heh, that's my boy!" Boris laughed cruelly, rubbing Yevgeny's head roughly. "Well, we might as well carry on as you've started us off, Yevgeny." As Boris removed his balaclava, Hunter thought his heart might skip a beat from shock. For a moment, Hunter could've sworn he was looking into the face of Exile, only with a long scar running down the left side of his face. It didn't take long for Hunter to work out that it wasn't Exile though, for one thing Exile was nowhere near as old as this dog looked, with the numerous grey hairs he had on his face, but mostly it was the eyes that gave it away. Hunter could clearly remember Exile's eyes as a bright ice blue, always so full of love and care, but the eyes he looked into now were dull and listless enough to send a shiver down his spine.

"Hunter, I-I think my shoulder is broken." A voice said from behind him, turning around, Hunter saw Blitz with his back against the wall, his left hand clasped firmly over his right shoulder. Hunter didn't think twice about turning his back on the enemy to help Blitz and knelt down beside him, though he wasn't all that sure what to do. Blitz was clearly in great pain, his teeth were clenched firmly together and he was breathing heavily through them.

"Huntie look out!" He heard Coleen scream a few feet away, spinning around quickly to see a blue bolt of electricity making a bee line for them. Knowing there was no way to avoid it; Hunter instead stood up in front of Blitz, closed his eyes and braced himself to take the full force of the attack. It never happened though and after a few moments of standing frozen to the spot, Hunter flicked open an eye lid and saw that the bolt was instead trailing off somewhere to his right.

"Coleen!" Hunter gasped horrified, quickly looking to his right, expecting to see Coleen being zapped. Instead though, all Hunter saw was a very startled looking Reidar standing in front of the hole that had been melted in the large steel door of the vault, seemingly un-phased by the electricity that had branched off toward him instead of Hunter.

"That was refreshing, but does somebody want to tell me where all the money went?" Reidar asked glancing from side to side at Hunter and Coleen as Boris stopped the attack.

"Well, it just kind of disappeared, at random." Coleen responded politely before Boris' deep growl rang across the room again.

"What foolish being dares to interrupt my fun?" The large brute barked across the room.

"Who me?" Reidar replied innocently, pointing back at his chest and glancing from side to side. "Well, er, my name is Reidar Andersen; I was born in Porsbrunn in Norway and I-wait a minute was it these guys who did that in the entrance hall?"

"Oh yeah, that was them." Hunter growled remembering the poor reception girl he had seen sprawled across her desk.

"I dunno about you Huntie, but I think it's about time we stopped talking and gave these blokes what-for." Coleen suggested, putting the bazooka down and walking to Muzzle's right.

"Coleen, I think that's the best idea I've heard all day, no time for messing around now, we need to get back and find out where that cash went. What do you say Muzzle?" Hunter replied, leaving Blitz to stand on Muzzle's left. The Rottweiler replied with his usual manic growling and snarling and shaking in his restrainer. "Ready! Let's Muzzle them!" Hunter yelled he and Coleen loosening Muzzle's fastenings in perfect time of each other.

As was routine now, Hunter watched as Muzzle leapt forward through the air at high speed, his tongue trailing out of the side of his mouth, jaws wide open toward the enemy in, this case the large husky Boris. What happened next though was not something neither Hunter, nor any of the others would ever even think they would see. In truth it happened in an instant, but to Hunter it seemed to happen in slow motion, almost like an action movie scene. Muzzle was flying through the air towards Boris' face, who like so many before him, wouldn't have had time to move before Muzzle sunk his teeth in unlike so many before him though, he didn't flinch or even so much as blink as the crazed Rottweiler came toward him. Instead, he had raised his hand up in front of him and at the moment where Muzzle would usually begin his mauling, he had grabbed Muzzle around the throat and held him off the ground before him, halting the attack.

"I would not have a predicted this." Was all Hunter could say.

"Impossible!" Coleen exclaimed.

"What? Did the little crazy dog finally get beat?" Blitz said loudly in astonishment.

"So, I'm guessing that wasn't meant to happen?" Reidar asked, looking from side to side again, pointing both fingers towards Boris. The only response he got was an awkward astonished silence, to which he muttered. "I'll just-be quiet now…"

"What an annoying little beast." Boris barked while Muzzle struggled and snarled in his hand, still trying to get at him. "Well, we have ways of dealing with crazies like you. Alex." He growled again, a malicious smile forming on his lips as he turned around to the one called Alex, still holding Muzzle away from him. "Make this little dog 'cool down' will you."

The other husky un-folded his arms and glanced over at his father briefly and then concentrated his sight on Muzzle. Suddenly a pair of thick, glowing ice blue beams shot out from both of the husky's eyes, hitting Muzzle squarely in the chest and encasing him in ice up to his neck, instantly ceasing his squirming. The moment after Muzzle was frozen; Boris spun around on the spot with Muzzle still in his hand and flung him across the room, directly at where Blitz was slumped against the wall.

It was time like this that Hunter was glad to have been blessed with super speed and what with being super loyal as well, he launched himself to where Blitz lay, leaving a small trail of fire behind him as he did and grabbed Blitz around the waist dragging him out of the way before the large ice block that contained Muzzle, shattered against the steel vault door. Once Blitz was safe, Hunter slipped over as he tried to rush to his old friend's side on the now slippery metal floor.

"Muzzle! Muzzle! Come on, wake up buddy!" Hunter panted while gently pushing the Rottweiler's shoulder. Most of the ice had broken off on the impact with the door, but Hunter could still feel that Muzzle's skin was freezing even through his glove. "Come on! Wake up!" He continued to say through his quick breathing. Eventually, his voice began to shrink to a pathetic murmur, almost like a puppy spending his first night away from his litter. "Please Muzzle, open your eyes…" He murmured once more, wrapping his arms around Muzzle's neck tightly, tears starting to form in his eyes as he lay an ear on Muzzle's chest unable to hear a heartbeat and the realisation walloped him that his best friend may never open his eyes again.

Hunter soon began to experience a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time, as he relinquished his grip on the limp form of Muzzle, gently lowering his head onto the cold floor. The salty beads of tears seemed to burn his face as he blinked, forcing two small beads to trail off down his chin and onto Muzzle's cheek. He clenched his jaws tightly together and growled, baring his teeth as he turned to face Alexandr, the one who had frozen his friend cold dead. Engulfed by his rage and sorrow, the only thought that raced through his mind as he charged forward was that he would kill the brute that had taken his friend from him.

"Hunter! Wait!" A voice called somewhere above him on his right, but he did not listen and instead continued his charge with fire in his eyes. Before he could make contact though, moments before he could sink his teeth into the throat of the enemy, the figure leant back and grabbed Hunter's arm firmly with large muscular hands. The momentum of Hunter's charge sent the two into a wild spin on the spot, the two cano-sapiens staring into each other's eyes as they rotated, like some strange ball room dance. There was something about the other's eyes that seemed mysteriously familiar to Hunter, a certain glow about the ice blue iris that seemed to lightly dowse the flames of rage that scorched his thoughts of all rationality. Once more Hunter began to experience the world around him in slow motion, the images that surrounded the circle that the two figures were in still flashed past as an indistinguishable blur of colours, but the rate at which the two were rotating seemed to slow to a crawl.

The bizarre phenomenon that Hunter experienced began as a single horrifying thought crossed his mind, one that seemed all but impossible after the past year until this very instant. Trapped in the circle of slow motion, Hunter's right arm seemed to move as sluggishly as the time around him as he moved it toward the top of the other's head, the was only one way to confirm his thoughts and that was to see the face of the brute behind the mask. _Don't be stupid! It's impossible! _His mind told him as he clasped his fingers around the material on the top of the other's head. _You're not thinking clearly; think about what you just witnessed, you're bound to be a bit screwy! _ The thoughts seemed to vibrate and echo against his skull as he began to stretch the material with a firm tug. _Besides you heard what the other's called him! His name is Alexandr! _The balaclava began to separate from its wearer, revealing snowy white fur covering a thick neck. _There's no point in even checking! _The thoughts shot past quicker as more of wearer's features were revealed.

A sturdy chin, covered by the same soft white fur. _It's not him! _ A long muzzle, containing teeth as white as the fur surrounding them. _He is dead! _ A coal black, moist nose with a light glint to it. _Has been for a year! _Those ice blue eyes, they're bigger exposed to the world. _Impossible! _The thoughts, they're more uncertain now, they hold less weight. _Dead for a year! _Blue fur started to reveal itself at the base of the ears._ Not coming back! _The fur on the ears was different, was clearly coarser and shorter, as if it was still re-growing after an accident. After one final tug, the balaclava came free to reveal the true face of it's wearer, no thoughts ran through Hunter's mind anymore, just a strange numb feeling that ran through from his head to the rest of his body.

"Exile!?" Hunter murmured quietly before he was plunged back into reality, time returning to it's normal flowing pace.

The rotation stopped as the brute let go of Hunter's arm, sending him running toward the door of the vault he had run from, before he could stop himself though, a single slippery trail of blue ice appeared on the floor before him, forming from the same bright blue beam of light that had frozen Muzzle. With the frictionless ice below his feet, Hunter, instead of slowing down began to pick up speed fast and with the wind rushing past him, he could just make out a few cruel words from behind him.

"Let's see if the little dog can ice skate!" The voice sounded very familiar, but with an uncharacteristically cruel tone to it. With no means of slowing down, Hunter threw up his hands to cover his face as the door rushed ever closer. Instead of crashing hard into cold hard steel though, he was instead cushioned by a strange warm material that seemed to mould into his form, taking the full force of the impact. Hunter took a step back and opened his eyes to see what seemed to be a perfect mould of himself imprinted into what looked like a giant block of solid black gel, briefly stepping around the side of the material, he saw his own outline with perfect dimensions, which showed his nose had been mere centimetres away from hitting the steel vault door. _Looks like something from a Star Wars movie…_ He thought to himself, glad that among other powers he was also super lucky.

"What on earth is that?" Coleen asked, walking beside Hunter eyeing up the strange material.

"That's not what I'm interested in." Hunter replied in a hushed tone, prompting a frown from Coleen as he slowly turned around to face the direction he had come from, afraid of what he might see, hoping against hope that he had imagined everything since he had charged forward in his rage. There was no such luck for him this time though, as he found himself staring into the face of a friend he had thought was long deceased. "Exile…no…"

"What's he whispering about?" A frustrated Blitz groaned on his left as he was supported by Reidar, with his left arm resting on the Elkhound's shoulder. "What? What are you staring at?" He asked Hunter, gasping sharply as he followed Hunter's line of sight. "Oh mein Gott…"

"No-no way, it can't be him-it just-it's impossible." Coleen stammered as she looked across the room at the panting figure.

"What is that? Why did not the dog crash?" Exile quizzed as he looked up at the walkway above the road rovers, while Boris muttered something quietly to the other two.

"Do not let him find out, just play along like he's always been with us." He hissed quietly over his shoulder to Nemesis and Yevgeny. "Now, who is this strange looking mutt that has joined our midst?" He boomed now in a loud voice, looking at the same spot as Exile on the walkway.

Hunter was not interested in the pointless conversation at the moment all he could hear was a fuzzy voice that sounded like the Border collie Nemesis, speaking words that were meaningless to him now. He glanced over at the still form of Muzzle lying in the wet puddle of melting ice shards, but had to close them tightly, unable to take in sight. He stared instead at his right hand, which was still grasping the balaclava he had taken from the other canine, that he had taken from Exile…His hand shook as he clasped the black material tighter in his grip beginning to breathe heavily again, unable to take it all in. Exile was dead, that's what Professor Hubert had said and the Master had told them exactly the same thing, so he had to be dead right? Yet, he was here, in this room, right now fighting _for_ Parvo. In any other place, in any different situation over the past year he and his fellow road rovers would've given anything to see Exile alive again, he was sure of it, but now he was wishing Exile was still dead, that news was easier to swallow, easier to take in than seeing him turn on them, seeing him fight for the enemy against them. And killing another of their friends while he was at it!

"Why is everybody being so quiet?" Reidar asked, scratching his head with his free hand. "Who is that guy everyone is staring at?"

"Exile." The three road rovers said in time with each other.

"Who is an exile?" 'Exile' asked, seemingly unaware of whom they were. "What are they speaking of?"

"Ignore them Alexandr, they are trying to trick you." Boris said with a malicious smile directed at the road rovers, mocking them. "They would try to deceive you, to make you confused. To make you-."

"Hunter! Stay! Reidar-hold Blitz back now!" Reggie yelled from the walkway, as Blitz tried to launch himself forward at Boris while Reidar tried to hold him back and Hunter made to charge at him at high speed before the same material that had saved him earlier now seemed to sprout tentacles that wrapped around his wrist and ankles, stopping him from moving forward.

"What the hell is this stuff!?" Hunter growled, trying to break free of the black material to no avail, while Blitz was having a hard time breaking out of Reidar's grasp with his bad shoulder.

"So, you're the one who is like Nemesis yes?" Boris said in a loud voice to Reggie high on the walkway. "Reginald 'Stargazer' Quasar, yes, I look forward to seeing you two fight!"

"First off, I would appreciate it if you did not compare me to her." Reggie retorted gesturing towards the female Border collie. "Secondly, the name is Reggie 'Star Ranger' Quasar and thirdly, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have no intention of fighting anyone at this present moment in time."

"What's the matter Reggie? Too scared to fight me? Afraid I might beat you?" Nemesis mocked with a cackle that made Hunter's blood freeze.

"Well isn't that just a mature take on things, though I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, you always were a bit simple-minded." Reggie replied with a calm that was enough to make anyone uncomfortable. "No, the truth is I would love the chance to shut you up for good, but unfortunately I'm under orders not to kill you."

"Reg, what are you doing? Let us go so that we can fight back!" Hunter yelled as Reggie jumped from the walkway next to him. He was too frustrated to even notice just how high it was Reggie had jumped from.

"Didn't you hear what I just said? I contacted Shepherd while you lot were 'fighting' and I use the term loosely and I told him about who we were facing and what happened to the money and he's ordered us to pull out and return to base now." Reggie explained, never taking his eyes off of the group in front of them. "You'll have to explain this new development yourself though, as unfortunately I'm in the dark about what happened about two minutes ago."

"And just what makes you think we're going to let you just walk on out of here without a fight?" Boris snorted, apparently amused by Reggie's notion that they would be leaving so soon.

"Oh it's quite simple really; you see I have one of these remarkable little devices to help cover our escape." Reggie replied, his facial expression unchanged as he twiddled a small black cylinder with a red top about in his fingers. "Have you ever seen one of these? It's called a detonator, a remarkable device that can cause amazing things to happen at the simple push of this little red button and I've got to say, I've been itching to try it out since I set it up a few minutes ago."

At the moment that Reggie conjured up the detonator, everybody in the room flinched and took a step back, with the exception of Hunter who couldn't really move. "You're bluffing; no creature would willingly set off an explosive while in the same building." Boris said, for once not sounding too confident in himself.

"Coleen, Reidar I know I'm not your leader, but I would advise leaving this room now and taking Blitz with you. Hunter, I'm sorry I had to restrain you, but as an ally, I couldn't let you do anything that'd get you killed." Reggie explained, finally turning his back on the other four, but holding his thumb precariously over the red button on the detonator as a warning.

"You're doing this? How?" Hunter asked, looking into Reggie's deep emerald eyes, forcing himself to try and calm down, after all, he was the leader and had to try and be strong for his team, to make sure they were safe. It was Reggie's eyes that did it, they gave him a strange urge to try and remain cool and professional under pressure, despite the shock and pain this mission had thrown at him.

"I'm sure you'll work it out soon enough, now if I let you go, do you promise to leave with your team members." Reggie asked, leaning closer to Hunter's face.

"That depends, you're a member of the team; are you going to leave with us?"

"I won't be long in following."

"Good because I'm not leaving _two_ members behind today…" Hunter muttered, glancing over Reggie's shoulder into the ice blue eyes of Exile one final time…or the eyes that used to belong to Exile… Finally the bonds that held Hunter relinquished their grip and after rubbing his wrists briefly, he walked over to the limp form of Muzzle and stroked his head once with a painful lump forming in his throat. After lifting the limp form of the Rottweiler off of the floor into his arms, Hunter walked over to where the other road rovers stood.

"Huntie?" Coleen croaked in a broken voice, evidently hurting as much as he was.

"Well, what are we doing?" Blitz asked in a toneless voice, seeming to have finally accepted he wasn't going to win his struggle against Reidar in his condition.

Hunter looked from Coleen to Blitz, the two rovers who had been in the team from the very beginning. He knew the three of them would be going through hell together once more after today, they'd all already gone through it once a year ago, after hearing the news of what they thought was Exile's death, but together they'd managed to slowly, but surely claw their way back out of that hell, but now they would be entering a new realm of hell, one where they would somehow have to come to terms with the fact that Exile was worst than dead, one where Exile, a once dear friend had lost his mind and was now fighting for the enemy. And seemingly for, Hunter personally, one where his best and oldest friend had been brutally murdered before him, never to move again.

"You heard what Reg said; we need to leave now." Hunter finally said, stepping past the wall of strange material to the melted hole in the door way. "Rei, take Blitz through first, get him to the sky rover, Coleen, you go next."

There was a moment's hesitation from Blitz, who looked over into the face of Exile once more before being forced to move by Reidar, who pulled the Doberman through the hole into the entrance hall. Coleen didn't look back as she followed Reidar and Blitz through, only briefly glancing at Hunter before disappearing into the entrance hall.

Hunter looked back at Reggie once more as he stepped into the entrance hall and was about to order him to make sure he followed after them, but instead his eyes widened as he saw Boris conjuring up a ball of flame in his hands and yelled a warning to Reggie who still had his back turned. Reggie just remained on the spot though, as the strange material that had saved Hunter moved to cover the hole he had stepped through, just before the last gap was filed though, Hunter managed to see, to his horror that the flame struck Reggie squarely on the back.

"NO!" Hunter yelled loudly, almost choking himself hoarse. He found himself rooted to the spot, staring at the wall of black material that had sealed the hole behind him. "I would not have predicted this…" He choked in disbelief. How could it be that after hundreds of near perfect missions that he would lose two team members and discover that one he had thought dead had gone traitor and tried to kill him and all in the space of one mission.

"Huntie! What's wrong!?" Coleen called to him from across the room at the entrance doors.

"Nothing…" He lied, turning around to start jogging across the piles of bodies, trying not to look at the poor dead receptionist. "Get to the sky rover and tell Rei to start it up. We're going to have to leave the jet rover here." He ordered Coleen as he reached her at the entrance. "And take Muzzle with you." He added in a quieter tone, trying not to look at the Rottweiler's face as he handed his body over.

"What are you going to do Huntie?"

"I'm going to wait for Reg, don't take off before we get on board." Hunter replied, leaning closer to Coleen to whisper in her ear. "And make sure you tell Blitz not to tell Shag about-about Exile. You know what he's like, he won't be able to take it."

Coleen didn't speak as Hunter turned back to look down the entrance hall, but merely nodded and began a slow jog back to the sky rover. "Come on Reg." Hunter said quietly to himself as he stared at the hole behind the reception desk. "You can knock off a shot like that I know you can."

As each single second passed, Hunter's heart began to race faster and faster, as Hunter found himself waiting and hoping for the best, hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with the loss of two team members today. Thirty seconds passed when Hunter finally began to give up hope, began to think about heading to the sky rover and just leaving, giving up. To his great relief, he didn't have to make that decision, as the form of Reggie dived spectacularly straight through the black material, rolled and launched himself over the reception desk as an explosion of flames followed soon after. Hunter stood in awe as he watched the scene unfold before him. The black material, instead of breaking apart in the explosion, instead followed Reggie like snakes slithering through the air as he ran toward the entrance and melded into his mysterious black armour as the strands caught up.

"Reg! You made it! Quick, Reidar's priming the sky rover let's go!" Hunter yelled, for once out of sheer elation as opposed to horrified shock as the wolf-dog reached the entrance.

"You're meant to be in there already anyway!" Reggie panted shoving Hunter forward to make him run. "We've got to be quick, they'll be following soon!"

"So you didn't kill them?" Hunter replied while he ran. He was relieved, he couldn't deny it, he didn't care about the other three, but if Exile survived then at least they had a chance of finding out what happened. "But that explosion, won't that have done it? And just how is it you haven't got a scratch on you? I saw that fire ball hit you dead on!"

"I'll explain when we're back at the head quarters! Don't worry, I'm a dog of my word, just remind me when we get back!" Reggie panted again, not looking back once as they ran toward the sky rover. The two dogs wasted no time in running up the ramp and into the large aircraft, only stopping once they were safe and home free. Reidar didn't need to wait for the order once both Hunter and Reggie were safe on board and was quick to close up the ramp and seal them safely inside before pushing on the throttle to full speed so that they were in the air quickly.

As the sky rover ascended toward the clouds, Hunter leaned with one hand against one of the cupboards in the kitchen before the seats in the plane and began to pant heavily as he tried to catch his breath again. He glanced about the large cabin at each team member; Reggie was leaning on one of the opposite kitchen sides, his hands either side of him, panting quite heavily and glancing at Hunter very briefly before he lowered his head with his eyes closed pointing down at the floor; Reidar was concentrating hard on getting the sky rover as high and fast as possible, looking over his instruments carefully; Shag was in the co-pilots seat trying to get Reidar's attention; Blitz was holding onto his right-shoulder still with his left hand on one of the rotating passenger seats in the middle of the cabin; and Coleen was leaning down muttering something in his ear before glancing at Hunter and nodding, sitting on one of the seats next to Blitz. Hunter got the message, Blitz knew not to say anything.

Once more though, Hunter felt a numb pain shoot through him and his legs felt like jelly, as he noticed Muzzle's body on one of the tables between two sets facing inward near the back of the plane. Slowly, Hunter stumbled over to the table and gripped the edge hard as he looked over his best friend's limp body. Tears began to form in his eyes again and he felt that painful lump throbbing in his throat again. A few tear drops fell on the face of the Rottweiler as Hunter leaned over him and after wiping his eyes, he raised his shaking right hand and began to gently stroke the top of Muzzles head.

"I'm sorry Muzzle." Hunter sobbed quietly, the tears burning the skin under his fur. "I am so sorry…" Slowly and gently, Hunter lowered his head and sobbed quietly into the coarse fur on the Rottweiler's neck…


	9. Chapter 9 Slim Hope

The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 9-Slim Hope

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 9-Slim Hope**

**Disclaimer: Nothing you haven't hear before, I still don't own the road rovers or the characters.**

It was mostly quiet in the cabin of the sky rover, the most interesting sound were the low voices of Shag and Reidar in the cockpit blending with the rumble of the engines at the rear of the plane. Hunter was glad to see that Shag didn't seem to realise what had happened to Muzzle yet, he was having a hard enough time coping without Shag's shrill wail resonating through his skull. He had stopped his sobbing now, instead he stood quietly over Muzzle's body and gently stroked his head. The skin beneath his eyes was stinging from where his tears had dried, forming a salty, sticky crust that was caught up in his fur.

He looked over his shoulder as he noticed Reggie walking from the back of the sky rover up to the cockpit. He might not have been interested if it hadn't been for the fact that they had been flying for over two hours now and Reg had stood in the same position, still as a statue for that period of time, ever since they had exchanged that brief glance as they took off. He glanced at Muzzle's face and with a depressed sigh, focused his attention back to Reggie, needing something, anything to try and take his mind off of things and Reggie had proved to be a very interesting character over the course of the mission. As he walked past their seats, Coleen and Blitz also looked up in interest as the wolf-dog rested his arm on the head of Reidar's seat and began to speak to him.

"How long have we been flying Reidar?" Reggie asked, looking out of the cockpit window as he did so.

"About er, two hours and twenty minutes, we'll be back at base in about an hour." Reidar replied, looking as surprised as Hunter, Coleen and Blitz that he had actually moved. "Why, did you fall asleep back there or something?"

"Something like that. By the way; what did you do to sabotage the enemy's plane?"

"Honestly; there wasn't a lot I could do to it." Reidar sighed, seemingly disappointed. "That plane was different from most I've seen, I had to spend about ten minutes just trying to work out what everything was after I got the power boards open, it had loads of different strange circuits I've never seen before. By the time I finally worked some of it out you made that emergency call so I had to leave, only thing I managed to do was lock the steering, but that could easily be fixed if someone was a half-decent mechanic."

"Oh, they have more than a half-decent mechanic." Blitz growled loudly about two seats back with his typical knack for doing and saying things without thinking.

"What does that mean?" Shag asked in his strange language of moans and growls.

"Nothing to worry about Shag; Blitz is just being an idiot like usual." Hunter blurted out on reflex, throwing Blitz a hard look reminding him to keep his mouth shut.

"Don't you call me an idiot you stupid mutt!" Blitz spat, turning around in his seat and trying to stand up, only to fall back into his seat and yelping, grabbing his right shoulder firmly again.

Hunter was about ready to stroll over to Blitz and whack him straight in his over-groomed face before he caught Coleen's eye, noticing the disapproving and warning look on her face. A couple of hours ago, back in the vault, he remembered thinking about how the three of them would have to stick together in the coming months to cope with the new news about Exile and knew that as the leader, he needed to be the strongest out of the three. He had come to realise now that it would be easier said than done, especially if he was going to let one of Blitz's regular insults get to him like it had almost done.

"Is that shoulder giving you some problems Blitz?" Reg asked, walking over to where Blitz sat after a brief moment of awkward silence in the cabin. "What happened to you anyway?" Blitz didn't reply, merely huffing and staring at a patch of floor to his left, demonstrating once again his short temper and lack of respect for others.

"He got blasted against the wall by a blast of wind from that short husky, the one with brown eyes." Coleen answered for Blitz with an irritated sigh, getting out of her seat and leaning on the back of Blitz's so she was looking over the back of his head. "And ignore him; he's always like this when he says something stupid. He does that quite a lot actually come to think of it."

"I say it again; you're lucky you're so cute…" Blitz growled under his breath, still staring at the same patch of floor.

"Well, let's take a look and see what the damage is shall we?" Reggie replied, seemingly unperturbed by Blitz's behaviour. As he spoke, some small threads of his armour began to move on his chest and snaked their way up to his right eye, carrying a small glowing green device.

"Was ist das!?" Blitz exclaimed, flinching in his seat.

"What-'ow on earth, did you do that?" Coleen asked, her eyes wide, standing up straight as threads settled, covering a fraction of the right side of Reggie's face, holding a small, green rectangular eyepiece in place.

"As I told Hunter, I'll explain later." Reggie sighed in response as he tapped the screen of the eye piece, prompting it to make a series of low beeping and clicking sounds.

"What is that Reg?" Hunter asked curiously, walking over to where the others were and looking at the eyepiece with interest. He was glad for the distraction, anything to take his mind off of Muzzle.

"It's a scanning device; it's called a portable MedScan." Reggie replied, looking up and down Blitz's arm. "You can use it to take a look at someone who's injured or sick and see what they've done. You can see what their body temperature is, x-ray so you can see their skeleton and internal organs, on some of the advanced models you can even look at someone on a cellular level and see their nervous system and brainwave patterns."

"So where did you get one of them from then?" Coleen asked intrigued, watching Reggie closely, while Blitz sat still, looking a little apprehensive about the whole matter.

"It was given to me when I joined the Space Rovers; this model is a basic standard issue I can use to measure body temperature and make a regular and internal x-ray." Reggie explained, standing up and rubbing the back of his neck. "You've dislocated your shoulder and have got a fracture on the blade."

"Wait a minute-you're from the space rovers?" Hunter asked, pointing his finger at Reg.

"Well, yes I'm the commander of the Space Rovers Vessel Canis Major in the exploration sector." Reg explained with his hands open in front of him, frowning. "Why? Didn't you know?"

"We didn't know mate, didn't know where either of you came from until Rei told us where he was from." Coleen replied, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder at Rei.

"Oh, well alright then, well, now you know where I'm from." Reg said, turning around to face Blitz again. "But yes, what are we going to do with him? Someone needs to push his shoulder back in place and the last time I did that I did more damage than good. Any volunteers?"

"I'll give you my kennel club official license if you let me do it." Coleen offered without hesitation.

"Do you know how to do it?"

"Done it loads of times!"

"Then be my guest."

"Wait a minute, what are you doing?" Blitz asked loudly as Coleen knelt beside him and clasped his arm. "No wait! Stop! I'm not ready! St-!" He yelled in vain before Coleen sharply jabbed his arm back into its socket with a pop that sent a nasty chill down Hunter's spine.

Hunter didn't think that dogs could actually go green if they were grossed out by something, but Blitz was certainly getting close to resembling some mutant zombies he'd seen in a movie once.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Blitz mumbled, his head swaying backwards and forwards before he finally fainted, hanging limply in his chair with his seatbelt holding him onto it.

"I always wanted to do that to him." Coleen sighed, standing up and rubbing her hands together.

"You remind me of my head of security on my ship you know that?" Reggie concluded, waving his finger at Coleen.

"What are you guys doing back there?" Rei called from the cockpit, both he and Shag looking back into the cabin.

"Nothing Rei, don't worry about it. Coleen was just fixing Blitz is all." Hunter called back, managing a small smile at the scene, true it was forced and it made his jaw ache, but it felt better than just standing over a dead body and sobbing for two hours straight. "So Reg, do you want to tell me what happened with that fireball back there?"

"I already said I'd explain about that back at the head quarters, though honestly I'm surprised you didn't hear what Nemesis had to say back in the vault, she was talking for a good minute, but you were all gaping at something or other." Reggie replied, sitting back into a seat behind him sideways, wrapping his arm around the head rest.

"Yeah, I'll explain about that later as well…" Hunter replied, glancing over at Shag. He had a good idea of what Reg was talking about, he vaguely remembered hearing the fuzzy voice of the Border collie while he tried to get his head around the fact that Exile was a traitor. "What about that explosion you set off though; you said it didn't kill them?"

"Well, in that case I look forward to hearing the story." Reg replied, leaning forwards in his seat with his hands clasped together. "Now about the explosion, when the money disappeared and the enemy confronted you, I planted a small, portable explosive device, about the size of a hockey puck, on the topside of the mid-section of the walkway I was on."

"Why did you do that?" Coleen asked, leaning against a table opposite Reggie with her arms folded.

"With the money gone the mission was effectively a failure and well-you saw those bodies in the entrance, even with all of us fighting we would've been in way over our heads if we fought them, no point in fighting over nothing right? And to be honest I didn't think any of you were in any state to fight such a different kind of enemy after that scene in the hall." Reggie explained, speaking with his hands as much as his voice, as even though he held them together, he was constantly moving them around as he spoke. "So I planted the device as a means to cover our escape if Shepherd gave the order."

"So, you must've been contacting the Master while the enemy were talking to us?" Hunter asked, recalling how Reggie was nowhere to be found during Boris' introduction. He didn't approve of Reggie calling the Master 'Shepherd', but he'd said it enough since joining their ranks to let it blow over his head.

"Yes, I had to leave the vault through the door at the end of the walkway; radio waves don't travel too well through thick titanium structures so I needed a better signal." Reggie paused to yawn momentarily and Hunter realised just how tired Reg had looked after their escape. "Sorry, anyway I called Shepherd and informed him of the situation and he agreed that it would've been better just to pull out as opposed to fight, but I contacted Reidar as an extra precaution, just in case we did need to defend ourselves. After that, well you saw me return, but I'm afraid I missed everything up to you charging at that husky character with the burnt ears and the freeze-ray eyes."

Hunter glanced over at Shag after Reg had finished his sentence cautiously leaned forwards to whisper to Reggie. "Hey Reg, can you try not to mention anything about that-that guy in front of Shag?"

"What about that Border collie girl? It seemed like you knew her." Coleen enquired, obviously thinking along the same lines as Hunter and trying to keep the conversation going.

"Nemesis? Yes I know her, though I'm afraid that story links in with my armour, so I'll have to explain that later as well." Reggie replied, turning his attention to Muzzle's body and tapping the MedScan again. Hunter was glad to see that Reggie had got the message and seemed unperturbed by his statement, though he was sure he would have done anyway, Reg was a smart enough dog. He kept his eyes on Reggie as he stood up and walked over to the table where Muzzle's body lay and suddenly felt that painful lump forming in his throat again as he caught a glimpse of one of Muzzle's paws sticking out from behind one of the chairs surrounding the table and quickly pulled his gaze away to face the window opposite him, wanting his attention focused on anything, but the body of his friend.

"So er-back to the explosion; what happened after you set the bomb off and joined me back at the entrance?" Hunter asked, as Coleen approached him and patted him on his shoulder sympathetically. "I mean, what happened to the enemy."

"Once I sealed the entrance behind you all that really happened was I informed that Boris character that it was a bad idea to attack a hybrid from behind like he did and that he'd do well not to do the same thing in future. After that I set off the device and like I said it was too small to do anything other than make the walkway collapse. Once we escaped I assume they left themselves. In any case it gave us enough time to get away." Reggie explained, all the while looking over every part of the Rottweiler, lifting his eyelids and shining a light from the small eyepiece into the eye. "By the way; he isn't dead."

"What do you mean?" Hunter asked, turning his head toward Reggie so quickly his neck cricked. Rubbing the side of his neck, he shot back over to the table where Muzzle lay, with Coleen following closely.

"His heart and breathing rates are very slow and he is absolutely freezing to the core, but you can plainly see-." Reggie paused for a moment while he removed the eyepiece from his face, the small strands of black material receding back into the chest area of his armour and held it in front of Hunter's right eye. "-that his heart is still beating."

For a moment all Hunter saw through the eyepiece was the green, blurry outline of Muzzle's body, until Reggie moved it a little closer to his face and he could see Muzzle's entire skeleton and underneath the ribs and other bones, which seemed transparent through the eyepiece, his entire system of internal organs. Through the ribs, Hunter could see to his elated astonishment, the gentle beating of Muzzle's heart and the very slight expansion and deflation of his lungs as he took in shallow breaths. Reggie hadn't been kidding when he said both were slow though, no wonder he had looked dead on the outside.

"Coleen, you're a medic right? You better take a look and see what can be done." Reg handed Coleen the MedScan as he spoke, apologising for the lack of an ear piece attachment. "I don't really need one." He explained, tapping the material on his chest, seemingly making the individual strands slither across his chest.

"This is amazin' I can actually see all 'is veins and organs!" Coleen exclaimed in a brief moment of fascination, but in a typical Coleen fashion immediately grasping the seriousness of the situation and acting quickly. "'ow do you check the body temperature?"

"The thermal imaging? Just tap the screen once and it should work."

Coleen quickly tapped the screen with her free left hand and concentrated her right eye looking through the eyepiece, her jaw dropping open her face fixing to one of shocked amazement. "What-'ow on earth is he still alive!? He's practically blue!" She breathed in a hushed tone.

Just by seeing the look on Coleen's face revoked the optimistic elation Hunter had felt upon hearing that Muzzle was alive, back to the deep depression he had felt the last couple of hours. Of course it was too good to be true, too much to hope that Muzzle would turn out to be just fine at the end of it all, such was the darkness of the day he and his fellow rovers had found themselves waking up to that morning. But wait; this wasn't him was it? Since when had he ever given up on anything? Since when had he thrown in the towel when those closest to him needed him most? Never, he had never once allowed himself to be so weak as to abandon all hope when his fellow rovers, when his friends needed him to be the leader, he had always managed to be positive in the face of danger, when the lives of his team members were at risk. And right now, Muzzle, his _closest_ friend was on the very brink of death itself, now was one of those times where he needed that smallest amount of chirpy, annoying optimism he had always been so good at producing.

"Coleen…" He said, looking into her eyes as she lowered the MedScan. "You have to do something! I _know _you can help him, just tell us what to do."

Coleen looked into his eyes for a long time and seemed to be biting the inside of her cheek and Hunter knew she was doing some serious thinking. It wasn't until he noticed her eyes trail off to somewhere behind him to his right, to where he knew Reggie stood, that she seemed to come to some decision. He noticed her eyes briefly glazed over before she shook her head quickly and sprung into action.

"We need to keep 'im as warm as possible until we get back." She said quickly, throwing the MedScan back to Reggie. "'untie, I need you take off the insulation from your armour and then get Blister's! Quickly!"

"I'll get that." Reggie replied, cool as a cucumber as he paced over the where Blitz was passed out and grabbed a piece around the neck, beginning to pull it out from the chest. As Hunter reached down into his own chest plate to begin pulling out the black meshed material, he briefly caught Reggie's eye and noticed just how exhausted and dull they looked now compared to when he had seen them in the vault, when he had been overcome by that strange sense of needing to be professional. He couldn't dwell on that right now though, he had to help Muzzle, he had a chance to save him, to get him back when he had thought he was lost, that was all that mattered right now.

He handed the insulation from his armour once he had removed as much as he could, shivering slightly as the cold steel of the plate of his armour touched the skin beneath his fur. Reggie wasn't long in returning to the table with the insulation from Blitz's armour and Coleen had removed what she could from hers and she wrapped all three of the pieces tightly around Muzzle's body, leaving only his head and tail exposed outside of the tight cocoon.

"Rei, get us to base as fast as you can, push this bird for all it's worth!" Hunter shouted to the cockpit, while he and Coleen made sure the insulation was wrapped as tightly as possible around the Rottweiler.

"Understood, putting her to full throttle." Reidar called back into the cabin, pushing gently on the throttle until it gradually reach the fastest point it could, the noise of the engines steadily getting louder as he did so. "Can I just ask what's the rush though?"

"Just contact the Master and tell him we need Professor Hubert ready for two injured rovers. Shag! Sit down and stay there!" He ordered as Shag seemed ready to leave his seat to see what was happening. The large sheep dog didn't argue, immediately turning back to look out of the cockpit window, it was times like this that Hunter was glad that nobody else was like Blitz on the team and listened to his orders, he couldn't have Shag running around and crying in a hysterical fit.

"Don't worry Muzzle, we'll be home soon." Hunter said quietly as the Rottweiler finally stirred, stroking his head gently. Muzzle wasn't out of the woods yet, Hunter knew it, otherwise Coleen wouldn't have given him the look she did when he had asked her to do something. It had occurred to Hunter that keeping Muzzle warm was a decision he could have made himself, but he also got the feeling that she had thought it hopeless that Muzzle could survive; she knew more about medical stuff than he did and from her perspective as a medic, was that the chance of survival was almost zero. Yes, that had to be it; why else would she have looked so horrified after looking through the MedScan? Regardless though, Hunter had spent two hours endlessly sobbing thinking Muzzle was dead and he didn't want to think about what he would feel if he lost Muzzle again, to have almost got him back, but to suddenly lose him all over again, that was something that didn't even bear thinking about…

The rest of the journey back to the head quarters was as quiet as it had began, with only Shag and Rei speaking in low voices in the cockpit, Reggie moving to the back of the plane slumped against one of the kitchen cupboards his head against his chest, presumably sleeping and Hunter and Coleen sat either side of the table trying to keep Muzzle warm, Hunter constantly stroking Muzzle's head and reassuring him he'd be alright as he drifted in and out of consciousness. "You'll be fine. Everything will be just fine. Just hang in their buddy…" He would mutter every time Muzzle opened an eye groggily only to drift back into unconsciousness.

At one point during the journey Coleen reached over and gripped Hunter's hand gently fixing him with a sympathetic stare and a faint smile, which Hunter returned in a brief glance, though he was quickly distracted by a weak whine from Muzzle and didn't waste time in responding with lavish reassurance and gentle petting. He failed to notice as Coleen retracted her hand with a heavy sigh, frustrated that her message had gone unnoticed. She didn't have the heart to tell him what she knew though, not when he was so heavily focused on Muzzle's recovery.

With Reidar pushing the cloud Rover to its greatest speeds, they managed to return back to the road rover's headquarters well within an hour of Hunter giving the order, with Reidar skilfully flying into the entrance chute at full speed only to slow it down to a complete stop perfectly fitting the aircraft within all four lines of its designated parking spot in the hanger.

"Best landing ever!" Rei exclaimed, pumping his fists into the air in triumph, Shag clapping his paws in congratulations. "Professor Hubert is outside Hunter, he's got two stretchers. I didn't know he had an assistant though." He added, scratching his head. "Ah well, lowering the ramp."

"Assistant? Since when did the professor have an assistant?" Hunter asked Coleen frowning, as the ramp began to lower with a mechanic hum as the hydraulic arms went to work.

"Since I advised Shepherd that Muzzle was in critical condition about twenty minutes ago." Reg answered appearing to the left of Hunter as he walked passed the table to where Blitz hung limply in his seat. "I thought it might be a good idea to call someone to help given the situation." He explained, unclipping Blitz's seatbelt and letting his weight fall onto his shoulder.

"Here, let me help you with him." Reidar offered Reg, walking down from the cockpit and holding one of Blitz's arms around his head, so that both he and Reg held an arm each.

"Shag! Stay!" Hunter barked, clicking his fingers and pointing to the cockpit, in response to which Shag held his hands up with a small bark as if to say; what? "Erm, I need you to-turn everything off and make sure the cloud rover is locked up tight when you're done." He knew Shag was clueless when it came to anything mechanical or just anything for that matter and that he'd be trying to work it out for a while.

"Hunter." A familiar voice said from behind him, turning around, he saw Professor Hubert appear from the ramp pushing a stretcher. "We'll take Muzzle from here, Coleen can you help me?"

"Of course Professor, 'untie we'll take care of 'im." Coleen replied, as Hunter stood aside, allowing Coleen and the Professor to lift Muzzle from the table to the stretcher.

"Excuse me there buddy, I got another patient to deal with, eh." Another voice said as Hunter stepped back into the aisle, prompting Hunter to walk backwards into one of the chairs behind him. "Thanks there buddy." Hunter looked up as the figure quickly stepped past him to where Reg and Rei stood with Blitz, who was still unconscious. It turned out the voice belonged to a Rottweiler, slightly shorter than Hunter, but with muscles to match Blitz…only his probably weren't just for show. He was also wearing a MedScan, similar to the one Reggie had used only it had an earpiece attachment and was red instead of green and seemed to only be wearing the black insulation that was usually worn beneath the elastic bonds of the road rovers armour.

"Sorry I'm a little under dressed Commander, but the elastic snapped on the armour I was given and it fell apart so I had to settle for this." The Rottweiler said to Reggie in a strong Canadian accent, tapping the screen of his red eyepiece and looking up and down Blitz as he did so. "Ah there's nothing seriously wrong with this one, eh. We should wait for them to get out with the other first and then I'll bring the stretcher for this one."

Hunter turned his attention away from the new figure as Reggie began to speak to him, more interested in Muzzle's condition than the newcomer and was quick to follow close behind Coleen and the Professor as they pushed the stretcher away to the medical room. Hunter wanted to follow the two into the room as they pushed the stretcher through the doors, but Coleen turned around to stop him.

"'untie, I know you want to make sure 'e's going to be alright, but it'll be easier to deal with without you there." She explained as the Professor pushed the stretcher through into the large room.

"It can't be that bad though can it? I mean, you've only got to try and keep him warm haven't you?" Hunter asked, looking her shoulder, craning his neck to try and see Muzzle.

"It's more complicated than that." Coleen replied with a sympathetic smile. "I'll let you know when we're done okay."

As Coleen walked into the medical room, Hunter remained on the spot for a moment, wondering whether he should just ignore Coleen and walk in anyway. He didn't have much time to make a decision however as he soon heard the squeak of another set of wheels behind him and had to step aside as Reidar and the Canadian Rottweiler pushed the stretcher with Blitz past him.

"I'll take it from here buddy, eh. Gotta do some fancy medical stuff to try and fix this guy up." The Rottweiler said to Reidar, who let go of the trolley before the other pushed the stretcher with Blitz through the door.

"So." Reidar said, turning around to face Hunter while rubbing the back of his neck. "What happened today? I mean in the vault, you three looked really scared by something in there. Looked like you saw a ghost."

"Oh, it was-its just-it was nothing, I'd rather not go into it Rei if you don't mind." Hunter replied in a tired voice, running his hands down his face, flaking off a small amount of the crust under his eyes. "Where's Reg? I thought he would've come down here, it seemed like he knew that guy."

"No idea." Reidar replied with a shrug. "I'm going to go make sure that Shag doesn't do too much damage to the cloud rover. Listen though, if I were you I'd take a shower while you wait, might help relax you a bit and get rid of some of that gunk under your eyes, that's gonna sting after a while."

Hunter nodded in reply as Rei walked past him to go back to the hanger, briefly patting him on the shoulder as he did so. He stared down at the white floor for a while, listening to the faint voices of Coleen and the Professor in the medical room. Rei was right, that crust did sting, as though he had strips of salt stuck just beneath his eyes on an open cut, he tried rubbing it away, but it seemed to just rub into his skin like a rough stone. Maybe Rei was right about that too, maybe it would be a good idea to take a shower, if just to give him something to do while he waited for news on Muzzle, it'd be a good opportunity to change his armour too, without the insulating layer, there was nothing separating the cold chest plate from the skin under his fur except for a thin layer of elastic. He stepped forward toward the doors of the medical room and looked through the small circular glass window.

He noticed that Blitz had been left alone on his stretcher a few metres from where Coleen, the Professor and the newcomer were working on Muzzle. Coleen was fitting an IV drip, the professor was setting up what looked like life support or monitoring equipment of some kind, while the newcomer was running one hand gently over Muzzle's back and tapping his red MedScan with the other. He was going to have to ask Reg about this new guy as well.

"Hang in there Muzzle; I'll be back soon buddy…" He said quietly, placing a hand on the door. Finally he turned away from the medical room and headed back down the long white corridor passing through the hanger as he did so, seeing the outlines of Shag and Reidar still in the cockpit of the cloud rover, their low voices the only thing that could be heard other than his echoing footsteps as he passed through the dimly lit hanger.

After one more corridor he made it to his room and taking Reidar's advice, took off his armour and went straight to his bathroom for a shower. He was glad that the Master had decided to fit bathrooms into each of their rooms after Shag kept hogging the original one, he needed the privacy. He sat quietly in the cubicle with his legs crossed staring at the plughole as the warm water washed over his body trying so hard not to think about anything, not to concentrate on anything, but the soothing sound of the water landing on and around him, but no matter how hard he tried, his thoughts always managed to wander back to the days events. He closed his eyes and tilted his head backward, so that his muzzle was facing directly up at the shower head; it was useless trying not to think about what had happened the magnitude of the situation was just so big, how could he not think about it, especially when he was alone like this?

No sooner had he given up it seemed that all the images came streaming back to him in one rapid slideshow from the moment he had made the decision to send Exile and Blitz on alone in the Nevada desert to the moment a few hours ago when he had pulled off the balaclava to reveal Exile as the one who had almost taken Muzzle from him. At that thought he exited the shower, deciding that his tears had been sufficiently washed away and realising that a shower was hardly going to do any good to wash away his memories of the day.

After drying off his fur Hunter went back into his bedroom and took the brown trousers and green-blue top of his regular un-armoured outfit from his wardrobe, leaving the black gloves and boots inside, after all it wasn't like he was going to be going anywhere outside, he just needed to find Reggie and try to get some answers, at least then he might've been able to take his mind off of what had happened, if just for a little while. As he fastened the waist belt, he noticed something made out of black wool resting on the end of one of the armoured boots he had kicked off before landing on the floor at the foot of his bed. He bent down to pick it up, removing it from his boot where it had become stuck with a piece of chewing gum, sitting down at his dresser table, it only to a brief inspection for him to realise what it was.

It was a balaclava that reeked of Exile's scent, the one he had removed from the husky's face just hours before. How he wished he had just left the mask on, left the vault under the delusion that the third husky was just another one of Parvo's thugs that went by the name of Alex, the son of a crazed cano-sapian that had willingly given his loyalty to Parvo's cause. That wasn't the case though; the dog in the vault wasn't just a cano-sapian, he was a road rover or once had been and had turned his back on his friends, betrayed the very nature of a road rover to remain loyal to the pack and to protect the world from villains like Parvo who would seek to rule or destroy it.

He clenched the material tightly in his hand as he looked at his own reflection in the mirror, he may have just had a shower, but he looked anything, but refreshed as he looked into his own face. He gently held back some of the fur under his eyes with two fingers which revealed a light red sore patch of skin where he had washed away the sticky crust that his tears had left. Reidar was right; it did sting as though somebody was rubbing coarse granules of salt against his skin. He also found it quite painful to move his head either side from where he had cricked his neck earlier on in the sky rover.

He rubbed his neck gently, looking at a photo of how the rovers had been not more than a year before and as he looked over the smiling face of Coleen, he found himself thinking back to when they were sitting opposite each other in the sky rover, trying to keep Muzzle warm. She had looked at him in a funny way, in a way that now he thought about it wasn't-normal. At the time he had thought nothing of it, too focused on Muzzle's recovery, but now it was beginning to bug him, she wouldn't have given him such a look for no reason, he was sure of it, so then why?

Before he had any time to think about it though, he was interrupted by the small tag on his collar beeping and glowing a burning red to alert him, breaking free of his thoughts for a moment, he tapped the glowing brass tag to answer it.

"Hunter," Reggie's voice said with a small trace of static. "You wanted to talk I think now is the time to do it. Go up the ladder in the main hall and meet me on the roof."

"Reg I-wait!" Hunter tried to say too late as Reg close the link. "On the roof?" He repeated, puzzled by Reg's choice of location. It couldn't be helped though; he had meant to speak to him anyway to try and take his mind off of things. He glanced at the balaclava briefly before stuffing it in his pocket and pulling on the green-blue shirt he had thrown on the bed and finally heading out of his bedroom door again.

**Originally this chapter was going to be a lot longer, but I instead have decided it would be better to spread it out a bit over two chapters. The reason is I'm not particularly pleased with this one, I feel as though after the action of the past two chapters or so this ones gone a bit limp with the lack of action, also I think I've ended up going into too much pointless detail with this chapter. So I apologise for constant the rise and drop of the action, but hopefully once I've tied up a few things in this and the next chapter I should be able to advance the plot in a more altogether interesting way.**

**As usual read and reviews are very much appreciated; I've had some good ones so far so thanks very much for your support! **


	10. Chapter 10 Shrouded

**The Ultimate Weapon Chapter 10-Shrouded**

**Whew, how long has it been since I last updated this story? 3 years? Bit of a longer hiatus than I can say I intended, but alas, life's little events always tend to get in the way. Anyway guys, sorry for keeping those of you who have been following this story from the beginning waiting so long, trust me when I say it's been a right pain re-reading bits of my own chapters to remember just what I am supposed to be doing. :P Anyway guys, hope you enjoy I apologise for any change in my writing style all my own fault and I will be writing this chapter around my first University assignments.**

**P.S. By the way, Warner Bros. Still own the Road Rovers, not me, I just made the three chars Lloyd, Reggie and Reidar, just thought you should be reminded.**

His footsteps echoed loudly off of the high walls of the main hall as he made his way through the large room alone in the fading pink light of the sunset fading through the small hatch that lead to the roof. The transdogmification booths stood silent in the shadows, no power running through them while they were not in use. Hunter shivered as he glanced over their silent, cold metal forms, looking into them each in turn as he walked past. The echo of his footsteps stopped as he stood still in front of the last one, staring transfixed at the red collar singed with black burn marks resting unfastened on a high stool stood inside the booth. It was Exile's old Rover collar resting on his old dining room stool. It was left to rest in the place where the Siberian husky had first transdogmified into a Cano sapien.

Hunter sighed and slowly walked over to the pedestal and stared down at the collar. It had been Blitz who had set up the little 'memorial' to their 'fallen' comrade, not more than a couple of days after Hunter had broken the news to him. He had apparently set it up alone in the middle of the night before the morning when they were all to return to their feral forms and to their masters. Nobody had seen him do it, but everyone had noticed it that morning before they all stepped into their own booths ready for home and nobody asked, they all just knew. Blitz had been the last to step into his booth and transdogmify for his journey home.

Hunter closed his eyes not wanting to look at the collar any longer. As his eyelids came down, images of the former member of his team flooded the dark before his eyes. A proud looking husky disappearing behind a veil of white smoke emerging as a tall, muscular canine form beaming as he stepped out from the smoke; "_This__is__as__we__say__in__Siberia-totally__neato!__" _Blitz expressing his love for biting a bad guy on the butt a little too enthusiastically as only he could with a disapproving Exile rolling his eyes in the background; "_Don__'__t__be__weird__boy!__" _Now he was sitting in the co-pilot seat of the Turbo-Jet Rover with Exile at the controls, the husky smiling warmly as he caught him staring at pictures of his mother, too duty bound to risk taking a detour to see her without some encouragement; "_You__must__make__time__for__the__important__things__Comrade!__" _All those memories, painfully nostalgic in the few seconds they materialised as the vivid flashbacks Hunter saw.

But the images soon changed, they became clearer, fresher and the feelings they evoked were of a very raw anger that frustrated Hunter in its intensity alone. He was held firmly by the arm, two strong hands gripping him tightly with two ice blue eyes staring into his own before the hands relinquished their grip and the eyes started to glow; _"__Let__'__s__see__if__the__little__dog__can__ice__skate!__" _The sheer mockery in the tone of voice in that husky Russian voice and to think it had been that same dog that had almost killed his best buddy. Hunter took a few short, agitated and shallow breaths before opening his eyes that burnt with angry tears as he clenched his fists. Suddenly he had an impulse to grasp the singed collar and launch it across the room and he thought he would have, had the brief sound of a rush of air and a sudden heavy thud at the foot of the nearby ladder snapped him out of his thoughts.

"What the-? Reg, you ok pal?" Hunter exclaimed as he rushed to the hunched over form of the hybrid, who was shakily sitting up on his knees, his hand clasped over his right eye. For a moment, he didn't reply and Hunter cautiously put an arm around the back of Reggie's neck and tapped his shoulder. He looked as if he had just fallen asleep on his knees, after such a high fall from the roof, Hunter was amazed he had managed that much. "Reg? Hey, can you hear me?"

"I'm...fine..." The wolf dog replied in a quiet growl, removing his hand from his eye, revealing the grey fur on his cheek and around his eye to be covered by a dark, glistening stain of fresh blood. "Must have passed out...feels like a burnout..."

Hunter reached his further around Reggie's back, clasping his hand under his right arm and resting Reggie's left around his own neck, slowly helping the shorter canine to stand and holding him in place. He was relieved to feel Reg firmly grip his own neck without much argument. "Come on, we have to get you to the clinic." Hunter told him, Reg looking up with a sideways glance and nodding quietly as they took a few careful steps forward.

"Just what were you doing up there, Reg? There are a lot better places for a talk than on a building." Hunter asked, looking down at Reg as they plodded along the first corridor. Reg just looked ahead and shrugged his right shoulder. "I like the moon and the stars. I wanted to wait for the sun to set." He explained simply. "I'm part of the Space Rovers, comes with the position."

Hunter sighed and shook his head. "Ok so then how did you fall? I've seen you in action for long enough to know you wouldn't just fall down a hole."

Reg looked away from Hunter. "I fell asleep..." He mumbled in what sounded to Hunter like a tone of embarrassment. Not something he had come to expect from the usually assertive hybrid. "It's this exoskeleton; it takes a lot out of me when I use it like I did back at the vault."

"Exoskeleton?" Hunter repeated, briefly glancing up and down Reg's body, covered completely in the strange black material, apart from his head and tail. "Well, I guess we had all figured that you weren't just wearing armour."

"Heh, if only it were just armour, would make my life much easier." Reg replied in a voice drenched with disgust. "It's more like a second skin and it comes with a price I didn't volunteer to pay, something for me to remember my old 'masters' by."

Hunter looked away from Reg, noticing his upper clip starting to curl back into a snarl. It was more expressive than anything Reg had done in front of him for the six months he had been on the team and it was both curious and worrying. Hunter steered them down the long corridor past the hangar that lead to the clinic, after about a minute he noticed Reg seemed heavier and that his feet were dragging. Looking down he saw that Reg's muzzle was pointed downwards and was swaying with every step Hunter took. He stopped for a moment and pricked an ear up, listening carefully and sighing as he heard the deep, regular growl of the hybrid quietly snoring.

"Reg?" Hunter said, lowering his muzzle to Reg's ear. "Reg, can you hear me?" He got no response, even as he lightly slapped the side of his cheek, Hunter grimacing as he looked at his hand to find blood on it. There was nothing for it, Reg was out for the count after his brief mention of his 'masters', seemed the poor guy had managed to exhaust himself. Hunter held his arm around Reg firmly and crouched down, sliding his other arm around the unconscious canine's legs and lifting him to his chest to carry him. As he walked off towards the double doors leading to the clinic, he thought about what Reg had said, about how his 'exoskeleton' was what drained him so much. It didn't make sense right now, but Hunter was interested to hear more, for now at least it gave him something to think about other than Exile apparently coming back from the dead only to betray the team...

Blitz restlessly shifted about on the medical bed they had placed him on, unconscious but still his mind was racing in the vice-grip of a nightmare. "Nein...Snowball...you're..." He growled incoherently as the scene in his mind played out mercilessly.

He relived the final moments of the crash all those months ago, the panic and fear he felt while a blinded Exile wrestled with the cockpit controls and gravity to keep the sky rover in the air.

Then another scene interrupted the recollection for a second. He was approaching another uniformed Cano sapien, who was wearing a balaclava, from behind no scenery but an unending ocean of black surrounding them.

Then he returned to his nightmarish recollection, now he was gripping the co-pilot's wheel, a harsh bark from Exile prompting him to stop cowering and help, but the ground was almost upon them.

The vision interrupted for another few seconds. Now he was steadily circling around the stranger to look at their covered face. The sky rover's nose was steadily pitching upwards from their combined efforts; there was hope yet! But was it enough?

The stranger reached up a hand as Blitz circled round, their fingers gripped the black material and started to pull it back to reveal singed white fur covering the front of the neck.

The sky rover's underbelly made contact with the scorched, cracked earth of the desert, the metal crumbled beneath their feet with an ear splitting, anguished cry. The harsh collision knocking Blitz from his seat and his skull was the first part of his body to make contact with the Perspex of the wind screen, ending his immediate experience of the crash.

The stranger revealed himself to be wearing Exile's face, bits of his fur and skin burnt away and singed black, two swollen, throbbing and tearful orbs of red looked back into Blitz's eyes.

He awoke with a harsh gasp, his body had gone cold and he panted in raspy, shallow breaths while stinging tears welled up from the corners of his eyes. His arms trembled as he brought his hands up to his face and closed his eyes, the vision so fresh and vivid in his mind. To top it off, everything that had happened in the vault came flooding back to him like a fast paced movie reel, his breaths becoming shorter as he thought of Exile. Exile...

"Stupid Snowball!" He cried, extending his tough, rapier claws and cutting right through the trolley next to his bed, the nearest object he could reach. He clutched his hands firmly over his eyes and continued hyperventilating in his depressive rage. How could all this have happened? _Why_did all this have to happen? He had spent many days and nights since the crash mourning his lost comrade, spent many nights blaming himself for not helping to prevent the crash earlier. It had crushed him to think that Exile was lost because of his own cowardice under pressure and he had started to loathe his own character. Half a year of trying to rebuild his character, to make things better for the team, to make-up for the loss of Exile so at least something could come out of his death... Now it turned out Exile was alive all along and was working for the bad side?

He extended his claws again, starting to dig them into his own head until two large, strong hands grasped them and prised them away, forcing them to his sides. One of the paws gripped him at the base of his muzzle and the other seemed to be digging a single digit firmly into the side of his neck. He heard a voice speaking softly, but assertively to him.

"What's his name? Blitz? Ok Blitz, listen to me." The voice told him, the owner leaning closer to his own face. "You're having a panic attack, I need you to try and calm down and listen to me, eh and breathe, _breathe.__" _The voice ordered, the hand under his muzzle relaxing and moving down to his heaving chest.

For a moment Blitz was angry; how dare this stranger handle him this way and interrupt his grief? Before the impulse could come to attack though, he felt warmth spreading out through his muscles from the spot on his neck, some of the physical tension and anxiety ebbing away. Even his breathing eventually became deeper and calmer, until finally he was only breathing at a slightly harsher rate than was normal. He allowed the stranger to gently rest him back onto his pillow, the heavy paw lightly patting his head before the stranger threw a blanket over him and moved away again. His limbs started to feel heavy and he felt as though he couldn't even lift a finger and it felt like someone was gently drawing his eyelids down over his eyes, obscuring his tear-blurred vision of the white ceiling.

Though his body was relaxed, his thoughts were still clear in his mind for now and he felt warm tears continue to leak from beneath his eyelids as he thought about the past six months. He had tried hard to move on and improve himself and his role in the Road Rovers, his own little way of making amends in memory of Exile, so he'd no longer crack when things got hairy. He had been true to his word for the most part, he'd kept his usual mistakes to a minimum, kept himself from barking at Hunter's every order and even made an attempt to restrain himself from his usual habit of recklessly charging canomutants, though that was a work in progress. No matter how mature he seemed with the team though, he had always struggled when left alone, nights alone in his room were the worst, trying and failing to sleep every night since the crash as flashbacks to the crash and the weight of his own thoughts and guilt refused to relent.

Whatever was flowing through his veins now though, courtesy of the stranger, was mercifully granting him a release for now it seemed. The images and thoughts and even the guilt started to recede into the very back of his mind, until eventually even his conscious thoughts were clouded and he couldn't even feel the bed beneath him anymore. His last sensation felt as if his head was floating blissfully from his shoulders as he drifted off into a much needed state of dreamless sleep, forced or not it was the only time Blitz had felt free from himself in a long, long time...

**Ok so this wasn't where I originally intended to finish this particular chapter, but with the way Uni is going I feel as though it's probably more prudent to at least get this part up while I can. Sorry it's a bit short, I'd have liked to have continued with it further, but I think for now this is the best place for me to stop for now before I got carried away. Anyway in summary I am still alive and this story though erratically submitted is set to continue, sorry to keep you all waiting I had some brilliant and helpful reviews in the past and I still appreciate them!**


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